


BMC Oneshots!

by HORIXEN



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Mutual Pining, Other, rarepairs, why are all these so underrated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:22:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 30,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22530061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HORIXEN/pseuds/HORIXEN
Summary: Just some BMC oneshots I've written!Ships I'll definitely do:• Spicy Bis (Rich and Jeremy)• Pins N Patches (Jake and Michael)• Expensive Headphones (Rich and Michael)Ships I'll consider doing:• Puppy love (Jeremy and Brooke)• Stagedorks (Jeremy and Christine)• Upstage (Jake and Christine)• Arsonberry (Rich and Brooke)• Something including Dustin, maybe? Comment down if you want me to-Sorry, I only write platonic (friends only) boyf riends, richjake and pinkberry since I don't ship it-Please don't attack me!And I'm not the biggest Technical Difficulties shipper but I might write some if I get enough requests-Anyway-Hope you guys enjoy this book!~Jensen
Relationships: Brooke Lohst & Chloe Valentine, Brooke Lohst & Michael Mell, Christine Canigula & Jeremy Heere, Christine Canigula & Michael Mell, Christine Canigula/Jeremy Heere, Dustin Kropp & Brooke Lohst, Jake Dillinger/Jeremy Heere, Jake Dillinger/Michael Mell, Jeremy Heere & Brooke Lohst, Jeremy Heere & Jeremy Heere's Father, Jeremy Heere & Jeremy Heere's Squip, Jeremy Heere & Michael Mell, Jeremy Heere/Brooke Lohst, Michael Mell & Jenna Rolan, Rich Goranski & Jeremy Heere, Rich Goranski & Michael Mell, Rich Goranski/Jeremy Heere, Rich Goranski/Michael Mell
Comments: 24
Kudos: 46





	1. ~Falling Petals (Spicybis)~

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the song Youth by Daughter.
> 
> I'm not usually a big fan of song fics and I'll probably be the only one I write but eh

_Hanahaki Disease: a sickness caused by the victim suffering from one-sided love, resulting in them coughing up flower petals, that will eventually grow large enough to render breathing impossible if left for too long._

_The only ways known to treat this is if the beloved returns that individual's feelings, or if the growing flowers are removed through a surgical procedure, though the individual's feelings for their love interest will die along with them. If neither of those things happen to prevent the plants from growing further, the victim of Hanahaki Disease dies after 2 months maximum._

___________

~~~~~~~~

Richard Goranski.

What once used to be the school's second most popular guy now roamed the halls as a loser, just like two years ago, in freshman year. What he used to know as his confident persona was dead and gone, along with his SQUIP. Sure, the defective tictac was out of his brain, but he still missed the days of being able to act like he owned the place, make any girl of his choice in the school halls (or any other place, for that matter) swoon, hang out with the one and only Jake Dillinger and his fairly large group of friends while a mixture of less popular individuals tailed a few metres behind, staring at the back of his head in envy.

Whatever. This was him now, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Rich shook his head in dismay and turned the corner, only to notice...Jeremy Heere.

He couldn't lie to himself, only seeing a glimpse of the taller boy was enough to send aggressive flutters all around his stomach, and his heart had decided, as always, to go on a jog the second he laid his eyes on the other boy.

Could he blame it though? Rich knew that in every way, shape or form, Jeremy was the definition of perfect. It was kind of ridiculous how nobody else saw it, right? The way his freckles lined his cheeks in a way that made them look like stars, while also highlighting the best features of his face? Perfect. The way his eyes would sometimes look a cloudy blue, while other times they would fade to a lighter, more gentle, much brighter, comforting hue of beautiful sky blue? Perfect. The way he would walk the halls, shoulders slumped, gaze darting to the ground to avoid eye contact? So freaking perfect. The way his whole face would light up the second he noticed his best friend, the way that smile could brighten the whole room... Perfect. Scratch that. He didn't even need to smile. Jeremy's presence itself was enough to make Rich fall head over heels.

However, the light that the taller boy had brought into the room faded away as Rich's gaze focused on a different silhouette of a much shorter individual. As he caught a glimpse of their hand inter-winning with Jeremy's, he felt his stomach churn with an indescribable amount of envy.

Christine. Christine Canigula, to be exact. Most committed member of the Drama Club, Mr Reyes' favourite student and of course, Jeremy's much-loved girlfriend.

_Shadows settle on the place that you left._

Rich bit his lip and shook his head, deciding to not make his way over. Seeing the two of them together was cute, and sweet, and they were perfect for each other, but he wanted to keep Jeremy to himself. Was that too much to ask for? After all he went through?

Probably. After all, he set fire to a house, right? Who would even want to be acquainted with the school arsonist, a total pyromaniac, a fire-obsessed freak? Who would even care about the hidden burn scars underneath the thick, protective layer also known as his oversized NASA hoodie, that were hidden in the dark, where nobody could see? Who would even care, right? He was just some depressed freak, who didn't bother to think about who would get hurt as long as things went his way.

Still, he couldn't help the longing in his heart. Jeremy...he made Rich feel safe. He felt loved, even though it was only platonic. He felt like Jeremy actually cared about him, thanks to all those check-up texts in the middle of the night, when he was browsing through outdated memes. He wished Jeremy would feel the same way he did, but he knew he didn't deserve him, not even as a friend.

_Our minds are troubled by the emptiness..._

In times like these, a SQUIP almost felt like the right thing to have: every little thing planned out, no bad outcomes...well, as long as everything strictly stuck to the assigned script. God, he was making play rehearsal metaphors... Was he really so desperate for Jeremy's love that he'd swoop down as low as changing his personality for him? Just because his girlfriend liked theatre? This is why being SQUIPless felt so weird. The empty feeling in his head...taking over everything, if there even was anything to take over anymore. Pathetic, right? Rich longed for the one thing that made his life worse than it already was, and all for some boy who was probably straight, and who probably wouldn't even give him a second thought if he wasn't...After all, who would want to be with Rich Goranski, right?

Rich Goranski.

The only part of this adolescent boy that had stayed the same, apart from well, his height...

He didn't even know who he was anymore. What was his personality? Was he the same person he was in freshman year? Was he someone different? Had his whole bad boy act in the last couple of years rubbed off on him, erasing what once was a different side to him, that he couldn't remember? What was the point in his existence? Why was the world here? Why...

_Destroy the middle, it's a waste of time_

He shook his head, deciding to just head to class early, and maybe just sit in the corner, by himself, staring at the blank back pages of his English book. As he walked down the hallway, he felt an unnatural rush of adrenaline, mostly fixated on his chest, near where his heart was. It felt thrilling, but also terrifying. He couldn't tell whether he was getting a fight or flight response, or whether his crush on Jeremy had just taken to a whole new level. In a matter of seconds, he became extremely aware of his breathing, his heartbeat, everything. Speaking of his breathing...

_From the perfect start to the finish line_

Why was it so irregular now? Every single breath felt like a chore, like a weight holding him down. Each effort to take in the smallest amount of air send aches throughout his shivering body. A panic attack. This was just a panic attack, right? Even though it didn't feel like one.

Biting his lip, Rich rushed towards the boys' toilets, barely pushing the door open before quickly ducking into the nearest stall. His hands fumbled with the lock, as he leaned against the stall door, coughing for what felt like ages. The other people in the toilets probably thought he was dying or something. And then he felt it. His breath hitched for just one second, but it was enough to make him instinctively crouch over the toilet, as a couple of more aggressive coughs took over. What he saw next was what really scratched the record.

_And if you're still breathing, you're the lucky ones_

Flowers. And not just any flowers. Oh no. Of course, they had to be that kind. Small, vibrant yellow blossoms, spiralling towards the clear water at bottom of the toilet seat. They were so small, almost harmless... They looked so innocent...

Acacia blossom. Rich's stomach turned at the realisation, knowing the meaning behind those flowers, since his mother used to work in a flower shop before...she passed away. Acacia blossom, the symbol of pure, concealed love. Yeah, it was concealed, 100%. There was no way Jeremy could ever find out about how he felt...

_Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs_

His train of thought was stopped by another fit of rough coughs, each one scratching deeply into his throat, making every single inch of his neck burn with pain. Desperately clinging onto the toilet seat, he tried to spit out the petals, barely managing to make a couple fall to their doom, straight into the flower infected water down below.

The boy anxiously rubbed his arm, wincing in pain as he felt his old hoodie come in contact with the irritating burn scars down the length of his left arm, which could technically still be considered fresh, in his opinion. Rich winced in pain, feeling tears prick at his eyes as a mixture of both physical and emotional instability took over his fragile mind, making him shake rapidly as he sunk to the dirty bathroom floor.

_Setting fire to our insides for fun_

This wasn't good. At all. He felt himself start to hyperventilate, soon enough becoming oblivious to any other sound around him, apart from his occasional coughs and the low thud of his racing heartbeat. He couldn't see anything else apart from the vibrant yellow of the blossoms, as everything else in his vision was blurred, fuzzy, you name it.

_Collecting names of the lovers that went wrong._

Taking a shaky breath in, Rich tried to focus his eyes on one singular petal, hoping this would bring his sense of sight back enough so he could get himself together somehow. At some point, he had to go back out there and face them: Jeremy, Christine. As always, Michael would probably pick up on him being upset and want to talk to him...

_The lovers that went wrong._

Rich shook his head, spitting out a couple more petals, this time a lot bigger, and with a flatter, smoother surface, through they still carried on the trend of a beautiful hue of yellow: this time a more of a pastel tint of the bright, innocent colour. Rich sighed as he yet again recognised the type of flower, his mind almost immediately drifting to what his mother had taught him. Tulips: symbols of one-sided, or unrequited love...

_We are the reckless, we are the wild youth_

He sighed deeply, wiping his mouth and looking down at the toilet bowl in a mixture of both sadness and disgust as he flushed down the helpless petals, biting the inside of his cheek with anxiety. If there was one thing he knew now, it was that he would never think of tulips the same way again. Or any kind of flower that happened to have a connotation to love. Or just flowers in general. Urgh.

This would probably scar him forever. He had heard of this disease before, though he didn't know the name of it, or how to cure it. All he knew was that it was caused by love, the kind of love that would leave him crushed behind, with a miserable, pathetic excuse for a broken heart.

_Chasing visions of our futures..._

Maybe he deserved it though. After all, those two years in which he listened to that...thing inside his brain...He had managed to shove Jeremy into a locker so many times, it wasn't even worth counting. Rich had managed to publicly humiliate the poor boy endless times in the duration of those couple of years, to the point where just thinking about it made his stomach tense up with guilt. Jeremy didn't deserve to go through all of that. Jeremy didn't deserve to have to feel like having a useless SQUIP was the only way to adapt to highschool. Jeremy didn't deserve to have to push away his only friend just because of a meaningless promise of a better spot in the dog-eat-dog world, the hierarchy of the social food chain.

_One day, we will reveal the truth_

After trying to calm himself down for a few seconds, Rich opened the door to the stall and headed out, staring down at the floor to avoid eye contact, or any sort of way to communicate with anyone in here. After a second of hesitation, he ran his hands under the tap and briefly washed them, since the thought of actually leaving the toilets without doing so disgusted him.

~~~

Sighing, Rich settled down into his bed, laptop pulled over his crossed legs, back as straight as he could get it, lip being bitten as always. Impatiently, he tapped the edge of the keyboard as he waited for the the tab to load so he could actually Google his symptoms already.

Yes, he knew Googling your symptoms and assuming the first thing that came up was the illness you had was a dumb idea, but it wasn't like he could afford to go to the hospital for a checkup, since his fairly expensive treatment for his burns was already draining his dad's minimal salary anyway. This was the best option he had, and the best shot at actually finding out what was wrong with him exactly. Finally, after a few more second of waiting, the answers to the Google search showed up, displaying a few images of the symptoms, and a couple of Wiki pages on it. He clicked on the first page, waiting for it to load.

_That one will die before he gets there_

Hanahaki disease? Rich narrowed his eyes at the screen, slouching his back so he was closer to it. Shaking nervously, he quietly read out what the search gave him.

"Okay....Hanahaki disease. Caused by one sided love." He shook his head, feeling disappointment scratch at his heart. Seeing those three words was enough to make him wish that fire would have been big enough to just engulf him. It wasn't like Jeremy would miss him, right?

_And if you're still bleeding, you're the lucky ones_

"So I'm basically just love sick. Can't be that bad, right?" He shrugged, scrolling down to see the symptoms. "Okay... coughing up flowers, extremal thirsty, low energy, either too much or close to no appetite-"

He skimmed the text anxiously, barely even scanning through the extract explaining how the flowers behaved more like fungi that their plant lookalikes. Whatever, that was irrelevant to him. He needed a cure, not useless facts.

"Okay...cures..."

_Cause most of our feelings, they are dead and they are gone_

He sighed and skimmed through the paragraph, before going back and slowly rereading it just to make sure.

"Wait...wait what?" Rich frantically reread the paragraph, just to make sure that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, that those letters said what he really thought they said. "I have two months...at the most."

He felt tears prick at his green tinted eyes, the light from the screen reflecting in the clear liquid and hurting them immensely, like when you check your phone in the middle of the night and it's on full brightness. The only way to be cured was for Jeremy to like him back, which was off the list, definitely. He had a girlfriend already. And if that didn't work, the plants could be removed with surgery. Surgery his family couldn't afford.

_We're setting fire to our insides for fun_

And not just the money. If he got the surgery, his feelings for Jeremy would die, along with the plant, fungi, whatever little parasite was growing inside of him was. And he didn't want that. He didn't want to lose the high of being around Jeremy, the feeling it would stimulate in his heart, the flutters it would bring to his stomach. Every conversation with him felt like an adventure, like it mattered. Why would he want to lose that?

_Collecting pictures from the flood that wrecked this house_

Rich felt a knot build up in his throat again, and ran towards the bathroom, locking the door behind him just in case his dad happened to wake up at some point while he was in here. Gradually, his breathing became heavier and heavier as he felt the petals rise up from his chest, his throat contacting around them, adding to the pain. He tried to swallow, in a desperate attempt to send them back down to their source, though all that did was clog them at the back of his throat, setting off his gag reflex.

Hot tears rolled down the boy's freckled cheeks as he tried to cough the petals up, digging his nails into the toilet seat in a desperate attempt to "make it go faster". Eventually, a couple of delicate looking tulip petals made their way out, spiralling down the toilet, sticking to the white walls descending into the water down below. He watched them go in dismay, before starting to break down to quiet sobs. This hurt. This hurt so much. Not just physically.

_It was the flood that wrecked this..._

And Rich couldn't even bring himself to hate the flowers. Weird, right? He didn't want the thing that was killing him to rot in hell...he couldn't even bring himself to look away from the delicate petals below. They looked so innocent, so beautiful, so perfectly shaped. The colour of them was so soft, so gentle that it was almost impossible to even think about the possibility of them killing him.

 _And you caused it_.

This was all Christine's fault, right? If only she hadn't gone out with Jeremy...she never even noticed him before he got the SQUIP, right? They never talked...

She ever rejected him on Halloween. Rich had a very fuzzy memory of that day. The only reason she was dating him was because of his "hero" persona, right?

_And you caused it._

No. He shouldn't be blaming Christine. She never did anything wrong; just because she liked Jeremy too didn't mean Rich could just automatically hate her... After all, she was so nice towards him. It was no wonder that Jeremy liked her.

But still. It was Jeremy's fault, right? If he hadn't been so nice to Rich after the fire, if he hadn't always checked up on him, if he hadn't given him any false hope that he might have a shot with the other boy, maybe Rich wouldn't have fallen for him. And maybe this wouldn't have happened, and they could have just been friends, like normal people.

_And you caused it._

Who was he kidding? This wasn't Jeremy, or Christine. It was him. He had to stop lying to himself...

He was such an idiot. Why would he ever let himself fall for someone so out of his reach? Loser. He was so useless. So irrelevant to anyone's life. Jeremy probably wouldn't be so bothered if Rich just disappeared, forever... right? He still had Christine, and Michael, and the couple of other people that ask sat at their lunch table that Rich never had the courage to spark up a conversation with.

Sighing, the boy let his tears dry on his cheeks as he leaned his head against the edge of the toilet seat, sobbing quietly, sniffling every few seconds as he tried to calm himself down. The boy slowly sunk down to the floor, the ache in his sore throat still pulsing in that knew exact spot as he held in his coughs, occasionally letting one single petal fall out.

~~~

The boy glared down at the fallen petals in a mixture of anger, sadness and regret. He missed school for the last three days because of this. Over the course of one month and a half (since he found out he had Hanahaki), the flowers had grown larger, stronger. They gave him less time to run to a toilet stall before he started coughing them out. They hurt more when he finally did, scraping into the walls of his throat at harsh angles.

He wiped his mouth with his hoodie sleeve, sighing sadly as he got up and looked at himself in the mirror.

Could he even recognise himself?

What once was a bright, hazel pair of eyes now looked so empty, so emotionless. His face had lost all its colour, turning to a much pastier skin tone compared to his normal peach skin. It was kind of unsettling to realise that someone's face could reach that amount of paleness...

He sighed as he looked his reflection up and down in the mirror, sighing as he noticed the curves in his body. What once used to be a steady, muscular figure has now turned into the complete opposite, making his clothes hang loosely around his skinny figure. Just as the article said, the flowers inside really did act like fungi, depriving him of all his nutrients and energy to the point where he barely had enough left to function.

_Well I've lost it all; I'm just a silhouette_

He sighed, shutting the bathroom door behind him as he left, looking down at the ground in dismay. He couldn't even blame Jeremy for this. He was too perfect to have caused this...

_I'm a lifeless face that you'll soon forget_

Rich knew he would die soon. He really did. Only 2 weeks left, and that was only if he was really lucky... That was why he had started to avoid Jeremy at school, deciding to spend his breaktimes coughing over a toilet seat instead of feeling his heart be ripped to pieces at the sight of him with someone else. He didn't want Jeremy to miss him. He wanted him to forget, so he wouldn't have to feel so guilty about not telling him he was in love.

_My eyes are still damp from the words you left_

The boy sighed, sitting in his bed as he coughed up a couple more petals onto the covers. He didn't care anymore. They could just sit there, just to remind him how Jeremy would never love him back, since he was with Christine. Only the memory of that day was enough to make his heart shatter into pieces, the time that Jeremy had excitedly told him about their date the next day, over some dumb phone call. He was still in hospital while this happened, and he couldn't even hear it face to face...

_Ringing in my head. When you broke my chest_

He felt his tears dampen his eyes yet again as he recalled the conversation, the way Jeremy's voice cracked more than the usual amount because of the excitement, the way the other boy would ramble on for hours about how beautiful and perfect Christine was, and about how lucky he was to even be noticed by someone like her. Meanwhile, he had to be the lonely friend, right? The third wheel. The person who wouldn't ever find a significant other because the only person they were ever interested in was off with someone else. It hurt like hell.

Why couldn't he have that? Why couldn't he have someone to care about him the way Jeremy cared for Christine? Would it ever matter if he did? He'd probably still pine over Jeremy, since he seemed to just have a thing that drew one-sided love to him.

_Ringing in my head._ _When you broke my chest_

A couple more pastel yellow flowers made their way up his throat, almost making him choke as he desperately dug his nails into the bed covers. A few miserable whines left his parted lips as hot tears rolled down his cheeks, seconds before hitting the ground and wetting his carpet.

_And if you're...in love...then you are the lucky one_

As he hid his face in his blanket to stop his pained wails from being too audible, Rich didn't manage to catch on to the sound of the front door shutting behind someone as they quickly ran up the stairs, stopping in their tracks just outside the door, yet still reaching for the door handle.

He coughed roughly, almost screaming as he saw what seemed to be half a tulip drop next to him, the pale coloured petals sprinkled over with a slight trace of crimson blood. At that moment, the handle of the door to his room turned with a squeak.

_Cause most of us are bitter over someone_

Rich tried to scramble his way under the blanket, as if to make it seem as if he wasn't dying just a second ago, and just seemed to have a bad case of The Messy Hair™ and some bags under his eyes. Nothing bad, just average day stuff, that happened to everyone, even people whose love interest liked them back. But it was too late. As the taller boy stepped in, his eyes lay on the petals surrounding Rich almost immediately. His sky blue eyes softened with worry as he met Rich's gaze, quickly going to sit down next to him before pulling him into a tight hug, though it wasn't too tight to actually hurt him.

_Setting fire to our insides for fun_

Rich let himself melt into Jeremy's arms, sniffling as a single tear made its way down his face and onto the other male's signature navy blue cardigan that he loved. He buried his nose in the fabric, taking in the extremely comfortable smell of warm vanilla as he clung onto the other boy desperately.

_To distract our hearts from ever missing them_

"Hey..." Jeremy spoke softly, running a hand through Rich's hair as he held him close, not letting go, adding just the right amount of pressure. "Is this why you skipped school this week? I was worried about you..."

Rich pressed his shaking body against Jeremy's, not wanting to answer his question since he was scared of the answer, but just stay like this, forever. He was so warm. So comforting. It almost made him forget about his terrible fate.

"Who did this to you?" Jeremy smiled sadly, rubbing his bag gently, purposely dodging the patches of his skin that he knew were still covered in burns. "Who hurt you?"

That one sentence was enough to rip whatever pathetic excuse was left of Rich's heart to shreds. If only Jeremy knew. If only he wasn't so oblivious to all the signals Rich tried to send him.

_But I'm forever missing him._

"I-" Rich clung onto Jeremy's cardigan, closing his eyes to hold back tears. "I don't wanna talk about it."

_And you caused it._

Jeremy gently tightened his grip around him, his hands basically tangled in Rich's messy hair. He rubbed his left shoulder, dodging the burn carefully so he wouldn't hurt him.

"Hey. Tell me. Maybe I can help?" The taller boy held his warm hands around Rich, a comfortingly yet depressing feeling under those circumstances.

_And you caused it._

Sighing deeply, Rich opened his eyes and loosened up in the other boy's embrace, relaxing the whole of his body at the contact.

"Well, if you really wanna know," He sighed, repositioning himself so his head was more comfortable resting on Jeremy's shoulder. Not even his voice was recognisable anymore, thanks to the plants possibly damaging his vocal cords. "It's you..."

Jeremy gasped softly, though he still didn't let go of the other boy. He gently rubbed the other boy's back, feeling his stomach turn with guilt. He couldn't believe he did this. To his friend. He made Rich suffer... "Rich... I'm so-"

_And you caused it..._

"Don't say anything, please," Rich smiled sadly, feeling his breath hitch as he desperately tried to get one last bit of air. His body started shaking faintly as he pressed himself close to Jeremy, not bothering to hold tears in anymore. He didn't have the strength. "Just know that I love you," Rich smiled sadly as he coughed one last time, taking his last breath as he felt everything go blurry.

The last this he heard was Jeremy holding in a heartbreaking cry as his friend went limp in his arms.


	2. ~Petals Aftermath (Stagedorks)~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: a bit of self-hate and reference to self - harm! if that's a trigger of yours, please skip this chapter and stay safe! <3
> 
> PS: Many thanks to the two people (both here and on Wattpad) that requested a sequel to the last chapter! Enjoy :)

"It's all your fault!" Rich yelled at the other boy, deep hazel eyes stained with glossy tears. He was looking at Jeremy with a pain struck expression on his face as he took a step back, hand curled into a small fist. "It always is!"

Seeing the shorter boy like this always reminded Jeremy of the times when Rich had a SQUIP. That was his expression right now. Mouth curled into a scowl full of hatred, eyes barely giving away the small amount of internalised pain for a millisecond before switching back to a blank stare. His eyebrows furrowed into what only added to the boys furious expression, only putting an emphasis on the fact that his tight fist was probably soon gonna be directed at Jeremy's face. The taller boy started panicking internally, biting his lip to the point where it started bleeding. He didn't want to get punched. He knew Rich wouldn't punch him...at least not normal, everyday Rich. This wasn't really that guy though, but a heartbroken, empty vessel, who had lost nothing yet everything at the same time. Love's a funny thing, after all.

"Listen, I'm sorry! I wish I could love you, but I can't! I have Chri-"

"Oh yeah! Christine this, Christine that!" Rich spat out angrily, his voice filled with venom. His jealousy was so obvious. "It's always all about Christine."

Jeremy felt so guilty. He knew Rich was breaking inside. At his feet, he could see the yellow tulip petals, scattered around him in a chaotic manner, a few of them even coated in a thin layer of blood. Rich's blood.

"I wish I could hate you for what you did to me! I wish I could show you what it's like!" The shorter boy spat, his fist soon making its way to Jeremy's face at high speed.

That's when he woke up.

~~~

Jeremy's sky blue eyes ripped open as he flinched, breath hitching irregularly. The adolescent scanned his surroundings frantically, his breathing eventually slowing down as he realised it was all a dream. Okay. He was in his room. Everything was intact. Walls standing upright. Ceiling above his head. Closet at a right angle from his wall, just as he liked it. Books lined up perfectly against his video games, looking extremely neat, unlike Jeremy's floor, which was covered in old shirts, socks and dirty pairs of ripped jeans. Okay. Everything was okay. It was just a dream.

He wished it wasn't. Because in his dream, at least there _was_ a Rich. Unlike now.

The other boy was gone. He had died from Hanahaki Disease, tears streaming down his face, fragile fingers clinging softly onto Jeremy's cardigan. Rich had used his last breath to tell Jeremy he loved him, before his helpless body went limp is his love's arms.

The two boys had remained like that for a few minutes; Rich's body melted into Jeremy's, the taller boy's hands tangled in his friend's hair. He was gone. He was gone and it was all Jeremy's fault.

Jeremy could barely move when he felt Rich go limp. A heavy feeling of disbelief weighed him down by the shoulders, pushing hot tears out of his eyes as he clung onto the shorter boy. It was the only thing he was capable of doing, the shock of this situation was too much for him to handle.

The boy collapsed back into his bed, breathing heavily. He had to call someone. Anyone. Anyone that would comfort him right now.

He frantically tried to reach for his phone, missing it a couple of times and dropping it a couple more before finally getting a good grip on it. Okay. This was fine. He'd just call... someone. Who could he call that was up at this time though? Usually it was just Rich, and it wasn't like he could answer anymore. He was gone. Forever. But whatever. He just had to hope _someone_ would pick up.

He turned his phone on, wincing at the brightness of the screen. Of course, as always, he regretted his choice of background, since the bright blue and white didn't go well in the dark, especially when his screen was halfway up the brightness setting. Damn, his eyes stung now. If tears hadn't been pouring out of his eyes already, they definitely were now. No. Don't you _dare_ cry. You're still here.

Jeremy winced and swiped in his password, narrowing his eyes so he could get as less light in them as possible as he clicked on his contacts. His three most recent calls showed up on the screen.

_Michael....Christine...._

His heart sunk at the third one, the familiar contact picture almost laughing in his face, taunting him. It was a photo from Jeremy's birthday party last month, a couple of weeks before Rich's death. He was smiling widely, his eyes barely visible behind a thick layer of curly chestnut brown hair, his arm slung over a smaller individual standing next to him, laughing his head off as his striped party hat fell over his face, bringing a singular strand of fading red hair over his his left eye.

_Rich._

Jeremy didn't know why he still kept the other boy's contact. Or that photo. Maybe he longed for the memory of his friend, or maybe he was still in denial, trying to think of it all as a prank, though he very well knew it wasn't one. That funeral couldn't have been a prank. Or the ambulance. The flatline on the heart monitor, even after doctors' many failed attempts at bringing him back. The pathetic excuse for a memorial at school... Maybe he didn't want to have to deal with the thought that his friend was dead, just because Jeremy found love in someone else. Maybe he just wanted to feel like there still was a part of Rich in his life. Maybe...

Jeremy shook his head. He should stop being so dramatic. He didn't have the right to act like this. He wasn't the one that was lying in a cold grave, metres underground, soon to be forgotten. He just had to call someone, anyone. Anyone who could pick up.

He tried to weigh his options, tried to work out who could actually be around their phone right now.

Michael? He was away on holiday with his moms, which meant he couldn't have his phone because he needed to "be more active".

Jake? That guy always went to sleep at like 8pm...

Brooke? Jeremy still hadn't apologized for Halloween...

Chloe? Frankly, she wouldn't care. And he didn't really want to talk to her after what happened at Jake's party, that was repulsing. Rolling his eyes, he deleted her contact.

Okay...Jenna? He scoffed softly. Absolutely not. The only time they properly talked they were both under the influence of SQUIPS.

Dustin? He only knew him through Michael, so he probably wouldn't even answer in the first place.

That only left one person in his contacts, apart from a few cousins that lived in a different state and his parents. Christine.

After a moment of hesitation, he clicked on the icon, pressing the phone close to his ear and cringing at the dial sound. She wasn't gonna pick up. He knew it. Why would she? Christine would never be up at this time. Jeremy was probably just waking her up from a peaceful sleep. Urgh, he was such a bother. He didn't deserve her. She was too good for him. Everyone was.

Jeremy sighed, taking the phone into his dominant hand, his other one reaching for the button that would end the call. He shouldn't be bothering her.

His finger was so close to pressing it. So close to just ending the call. Hanging up. Letting Christine get the good night's sleep she well deserved. But it wasn't quick enough. Before he knew it, the call was answered, and his girlfriend's soft and sleepy voice would be heard through the mic of his sad-looking phone.

"Jeremy? It's the middle of the night-"

"Can we talk, Christine?" The boy bit his lip, trying to hold his tears in at the sound of his girlfriend's voice. He wanted to sob so badly. He wanted to cry into his pillow until he drowned in his own tears and his room because a mini swimming pool. He wanted to cry away until the end of the world, so he could get rid of all those mixed up emotions of guilt, sadness, regret, despair and self-hate that were pent up in his mind.

"Sure, you wanna come over? My parents sleep like babies, they won't hear you come in." Christine yawned sleepily at the other end of the line. Yet again, Jeremy felt really guilty for waking her up.

"Are you sure? I don't wanna be a bother..."

"Positive. Just take your bike over and knock on my window when you're there."

Jeremy muttered a reply and hung up, before immediately feeling terrible for not saying "I love you" before leaving, like he usually did. Damn, he was really falling behind on being a good boyfriend, right? What kind of idiot would just hang up without even bothering to thank the other person for their help? Christine could have just ignored the call, assumed her imbecile boyfriend just wanted attention, and go back to sleep, without having to deal with his meaningless problems. He deserved to feel like this. It was his fault Rich died.

Shaking his head, Jeremy forced himself to snap out of his trance, breaking though his internal monologue for enough time to completely shake himself out of it. Okay. He just had to make it to Christine's house. Can't be much of a challenge, right? His dad always slept like a baby, so it didn't matter if he accidentally tripped and fell to his death down the stairs, or if he accidentally slammed the door too hard and let the whole neighborhood know he was sneaking out. And his bike was already parked outside of his house, disguised against the wall. Though it looked pretty obvious in daylight, the thieves that roamed the streets couldn't see it when it was covered by a thick blankets of dark shadows. After all, _everything_ was legal in New Jersey nowadays anyway. Yikes.

Jeremy quickly stumbled down to his drawers of neatly packed t-shirts and hoodies, a striking contrast when compared to the floor of his room. Sighing to himself, he grabbed the nearest shirt and quickly changed into it, carefully lifting his pajama shirt over his head before carelessly chucking it in the neverending shadows that were under his bed, where it would probably never be found again. He did the same with his shorts, soon replacing them for some jeans.

Okay. All he had to do now was sneak downstairs, grab his jacket and go. Easier said than done.

Jeremy gingerly stepped towards the door to the hallway, purposely avoiding specific wooden files on the floor since he knew which ones would squeak when he put his weight on them. When he finally got there, the boy turned the handle to his bedroom door, and stepped into the hallway. Okay, he was halfway there. Just go down the hallway, get your jacket, and go. Can't be that hard, right?

The boy carefully made his way down the stairs, stopping at the coat hanger to get his denim jacket and his keys before slowly opening the door and stepping outside. The cold air struck straight into whatever parts of Jeremy's skin were exposed, making him flinch at the sudden change of temperature.

He quietly closed the door behind him and picked up his bike from against the wall, making sure to get on properly before starting to pedal towards his girlfriend's house.

**~~~**

_**{I'm outside your house. Is your window open?]** _

Jeremy sighed and waited patiently outside Christine's house, his bike safely parked away behind a bush, where nobody could get it. He waited and waited, hoping Christine would eventually check her phone.

"Jeremy. Come here," his partner's soft voice made him perk up, soon making him look straight at the girl's half-open window. "Sneak in."

Jeremy nodded and made his way closer to where the short girl was gesturing him to come.

"If you step on that stone there and pull yourself up you should make it." Christine gestured towards a fairly large rock underneath her window, which looked like it might actually be able to hold Jeremy's weight without toppling over and making him fall to his death. Okay, so maybe that was an exaggeration, but whatever. Maybe falling to his death was a better option than that of having to deal with all the guilt and self-hate right now.

Finally, after a few failed attempts to get the adolescent boy through the window, Christine managed to pull him up into her room, his arms hanging loosely around her neck as she basically half-carried him to her bed, before gently putting him down and sitting next to him.

"What's wrong, Jeremy? You shouldn't be awake at this time of night." Christine yawned sleepily, a soft sound leaving her parted lips.

Jeremy felt guilty for waking her up. She looked so bothered, barely managing to keep her head up. Her half-closed eyes looked at Jeremy through a blanket of really messy, unbrushed raven hair. Dark bags hung under her tired eyes, bringing a unnatural fatigue to the girl's normally cheerful expression, which was mildly unsettling at the moment. Jeremy tried to tolerate it, deciding to place his head on her shoulder as she pulled him in for a warm hug.

As tired as she was, she still gave amazing hugs.

Jeremy nuzzled her shoulder, feeling his eyes tear up again as he thought about his friend being gone. Rich.

The boy sniffed quietly, feeling the incoming waterfalls from his half-closed eyes.

"I-" Jeremy clung onto the thin fabric of the girls pajama shirt, feeling the hot tears starting to slip out of his eyes, rolling down his freckles cheeks and wetting Christine's shoulder. No. He couldn't dare make this about him. This wasn't about him. He shouldn't get the privilege to feel like a victim when it was his fault his friend was dead. If only he knew about the way Rich felt...he could have helped him get the surgery. Everything would have gone back to normal. They would all be happy amongst friends, and Jeremy wouldn't be here, quietly sobbing into his girlfriend's shoulder as she gently trailed her delicate hands along his back.

"Jeremy...I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong," Christine softly whispered to him, resting her head on his shoulder and carefully holding him close, as if too much pressure could damage the treasure that was in her arms. "Please. I want to help you."

Jeremy took a shaky breath, pressing himself up against her softly, as if the warmth of the contact would be enough to fill the void in his heart.

"It's...it's Rich." He sighed, looking down at the girl's flowery bedsheet miserably.

"Oh, Jeremy. I know that you miss him, but he's gone..." Christine held onto him, refusing to let go. Secretly, she just didn't want to see his face. She couldn't. Only the sight of the person she cared about the most crying his eyes out would be enough to break her, to tear her heart into little pieces that would then be individually scattered in different areas of the seven levels of hell. So many people thought she was so cheerful and happy all the time, they didn't bother to consider how fragile she actually was. Like many other actors, Christine knew how to hide her inner demons well.

"But it's my fault..." Jeremy let out a small sob, before burying his face deeper in the girls shoulder.

"It can't possibly be your fau-"

"He had Hanahaki Disease!" Jeremy cut her off, letting out a pitiful cry. "It _was_ my fault. He loved me, but I didn't love him back..." He sighed softly, leaning into her. "He's gone, Christine. He's gone, and there's no way to bring him back. We're never gonna see him again. There isn't gonna be any more jokes in the halls, or passing funny notes in the middle of class. There isn't gonna be any more...Rich. We can't just bring him back..."

Christine sighed softly, using her right hand to run her fingertips through Jeremy's tangled hair, something she knew always calmed his down.

"Jeremy. He's in a better place now," she held him protectively. "And I know it feels like you should blame yourself, but that's just... That's not the way to go, trust me," The girl nuzzled his shoulder, rubbing his back carefully. "You're not to blame for his feelings... Or yours. There wasn't anything you could do, right?"

Jeremy's shaking body relaxed slightly in her embrace, still occasionally flinching with a hiccup, or a sob.

"I could have helped him get surgery..." Jeremy breathed out in between muffled cries. "I could have helped him, like he helped me with my SQUIP problems..."

Even mentioning that little pest was enough to send hatred all around his body. That thing was the reason why Rich led such an unhappy life. That thing was what ruined a beautiful trip though 12 years of friendship for Jeremy, changing the relationship between him and Michael by a huge amount. They never even talked as much as they used to anymore, and Michael probably still had a lot of pent up anger and sorrow, despite being such a forgiving person. And now that Rich was gone, there was nobody to call at 1am in the morning, after Jeremy woke up from another one of his reoccurring SQUIP nightmares. Michael never had a SQUIP, he couldn't possibly know what it's like. Also, Jeremy didn't want to bring them up, just in case they brought back unwanted memories. Christine and the others? They didn't have theirs for long enough to know the full horror of it, the feeling of being degraded because of every little thing they did, the knowledge that at the end of it all, they would just become a shell, a pathetic vessel for the SQUIP to use to play around with humanity. They didn't know what it was like to receive spinal shocks for wanting to enjoy their life, or wanting to do well in their classes, being told that "being a smartass would ruin their reputation". They couldn't possibly understand what it felt like to be on the verge of going insane in a frantic panic to get the parasite out of their head.

But Rich did. He had to endure it for two years...so of course he did. But now, now that he was gone, Jeremy had nobody to talk to. Nobody that would understand, anyway. And the only reason why that was the case was nothing other than Jeremy himself.

"You know I'm here whenever you need help...talk to me," Christine tightened her grip around him gently, rocking him side to side. "You've gone through so much..."

Jeremy sighed.

"You're so sweet, kind and caring. Everyone in our friend group is," he smiled sadly, momentarily stopping to wipe a tear off his cheek. "I don't deserve you guys. Not you, not Michael...not Brooke, or Jake. Not anyone."

"Jeremy, you know that's not true!" Christine whispered softly, tracing her hand down his back to calm him down. "You deserve the world, and you know that."

"But I don't...all I ever do is mess everything up. I messed up the play, I mess up Michael's friendship. I messed up Rich..." He sighed. "Can't you see I'm just a waste of space? I haven't done one meaningful thing ever since, well, I don't even remember. Why should anyone even care if I just...disappeared?"

"Because! Can't you see how amazing you are? You're so sweet, caring... you're always there for anyone that needs your help. Everyone would miss you."

Jeremy shook his head, making Christine's heart break into millions of little shards.

"Why would they? I'm the loser that ruined everything! I should have listened to Michael and ditched the whole SQUIP idea, and just wait for the day in which we'd be 'cool in college'! I should have refused to date Brooke, instead of just using her to get popular. I should have forced myself to move when Chloe...urgh." Jeremy shook his head, wanting badly to forget that moment. "I should have refused to take a SQUIP. Then none of this would have happened...Rich and I wouldn't have been close, he wouldn't have liked me, and then he wouldn't be dead. Maybe we wouldn't be friends, and he'd still bully me, but at least he'd be _alive,_ " Jeremy sniffed bitterly, wiping away a few tears that had gathered around his eyes. "I- I'm being such a bother. I can go..." He bit his lip, his voice cracking mid-sentence.

That was probably so messed up, right? Would he really rather have his life as an actual representation of high-school hell, just so the guy that tormented him for two years would be alive? Did he really care so much about other people to the point where he'd rather spend every night taking care of bruises and counting the small scars on his wrist? That was so pathetic, right? Urgh, he shouldn't even be playing victim right now... He wasn't the one that was dead, lying under the cold ground in an endless, dreamless sleep.

"Hey, let it out, it's alright," Christine sighed and pulled him close, so his head was resting on her shoulder. She slowly wrapped one arm around the boy's waist, while the other got itself tangled in his chestnut brown hair. "It's better if you do."

Jeremy nodded quietly, leaning into her comforting touch. She made it all feel so much better, brought the smallest amount of colour to his dull, monochromatic world, made him feel alive.

"I just...I hate myself. So much. For everything. For lying to you, to Brooke, for being such a terrible friend to Michael..." He sighed, closing his eyes for a couple of seconds. "For Rich's death. He died in my arms, Christine. He used his last breath to tell me that he lo-" Jeremy hiccuped, his heartbeat becoming irregular for a second before going back to normal. No. He couldn't say it. He couldn't.

Christine ran her fingers through his hair, trying to comfort him. She hated seeing him like this. Why did he have to feel this way? Sure, his feelings were of course valid, but he shouldn't be feeling this sad, right? He didn't deserve it.

"I just.... everything's my fault. I'm just an ugly, useless failure. A loser. I don't deserve your love, your anybody else's." Jeremy whined softly, burying his face in Christine's shoulder.

"Jeremy, you know that's not true," The girl moved a bit of Jeremy's dampened hair out of his eyes, giving him a sad smile. "You're so beautiful; I wish you could see it. Seriously, I could study you all day," she spoke softly, caressing his cheek gently. "And you may think you're a failure, but that doesn't mean it's true. Because you're not. You made it through, survived the whole...SQUIPcident," she sighed. "We're all proud of you for that. A loser, a failure, he wouldn't have pushed through, he wouldn't have told me to drink the Mountain Dew Red...a loser would have taken advantage, sold his soul...But you didn't. You were strong, you fought back. A loser wouldn't do that!"

Jeremy looked at her through his tears, giving her a small smile.

"Thank you. Thank you so much..."

Christine patted his back, letting him curl up close to her, pressing his shaking body against her side. The waterfall of tears he was holding back rushed though, falling down his cheeks at lightning fast speed, wetting the fabric of Christine's shoulder. He let out small, quiet whined and sobs, occasionally sniffing in an attempt to catch his breath. He cried hard, letting out all those pent up emotions he tried to hide from himself. This felt so good. It felt so good to finally let loose.

The two stayed like that, cuddled up on Christine's bed for a while longer before Jeremy eventually calmed down and started to fall asleep on his girlfriend's shoulder, letting out soft snores in the process.

Christine gently ran a hand through his hair, making sure to do it carefully, without waking him up. Quietly, she pulled him close to her and pressed a soft kiss against his forehead, before going back to nuzzling his neck.

"I love you," she whispered softly into his ear, letting her arms tighten around him a little. "I love you so much." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bet y'all thought you were gonna get a fluffy oneshot thanks to Valentine's Day. Hahaha you were WrOnG *throws angst at you*
> 
> Why am I like this.
> 
> Anyway, hope you guys had fun reading this chapter? I don't think it's as good as Falling Petals but I tried :')
> 
> Happy (Late) Single Awareness Day!
> 
> ~Jensen


	3. ~°•* Fireflies (Pins N Patches) *•°~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A request by one of my best online friends!
> 
> (If you guys have Wattpad too, you should totally follow ZelleIsHere :D)

"Where are we going?" Michael asked for what felt like the thousandth time as he strapped himself in the shotgun seat.

Behind him, Rich, Jeremy and Brooke were all squashed in the small space of the back seats, with the taller boy sandwiched in the middle, an uncomfortable expression plastered on his face. On his left side, Brooke was carelessly examining her pastel pink acrylic nails while she lazily swiped through Instagram, occasionally liking one of Chloe's spam posts before deciding to just stalk Jenna's profile. On the other side of Jeremy, a bored Rich was absentmindedly tapping his fingers on the windowsill, his eyes not really fixated on anything in particular, but just staring at the back of the seat in front of him.

Jake rolled his eyes and pulled his seatbelt over himself, before adjusting his seat properly so he could drive.

"You'll see," he smiled teasingly, knowing Michael hated not being told things, and wanting to wind him up a little.

"Hmph!" The other boy stuck his tongue out at him, looking out of the window with an tsundere-like expression plastered across his face. "You're mean."

Jake shook his head and started up the car, smiling as he felt the engine do its own usual thing. Although some people found driving stressful, the way the car would speed down the road, up and down hills, the feeling of the engine's purr as he accelerated...it would relax him.

The group of four people drove away from their initial meetup spot and in the direction of the sunset at the horizon.

~~~

"You led us to your cabin in the woods? That's not sketchy at all-" Rich narrowed his eyes at the wooden house outside of the car as he pushed the door open. "If you dare lay a finger on Jeremy I will attack you," he glared at Jake over his shoulder, wrapping a protective arm around his deeply blushing boyfriend, whose face had such a striking shade of red that it was putting the crimson streak in his partner's hair to shame.

Michael chuckled lightly as he helped Brooke out of the car, closing the door behind her.

"Nobody's attacking either of you two lovebirds. Seriously, Goranski, calm yourself," he rolled his eyes in mock exasperation, biting his lip.

"Yeah. Even though you guys are too cute for you own good," Brooke stated, twirling a bit of her golden hair around her index finger, pursing her lip softly as she looked Jake's cabin up and down. "How is everyone gonna fit in there? Especially when Chloe gets here with Christine and Jenna!"

Jake rolled his eyes.

"We have warm blankets and pillows. And we'll all be sleeping in the basement probably. There's a few sofas down there." He shrugged, chewing the inside of his cheek. "Let's go in and wait for everyone there. I'm cold."

The tall boy wrapped his usual red varsity jacket tighter around him, his body shaking mildly as the cold hair stung under his skin. He almost envied Michael for having a thick hoodie. Maybe he could ask to borrow one of Michael's hoodies at some poin-

Woah. Okay, calm down. That's not very hetero.

Jake wasn't gay, right? Like sure, he'd occasionally find guys attractive at some points in time, like when Michael smiled innocently after Jake taught him how to capture a specific light in photography, the way Jeremy's somewhat curly hair fell in front of his eyes when he looked down after he got flustered, complimenting the reddish dust , or how Rich would sometimes laugh like an angel.

People always found their friends attractive, right? It wasn't something weird. Jake still liked girls, and from what he knew, it wasn't like he was in the mood for getting a love interest, especially now, when the only half-decent people were all his friends. Catching feelings for someone in your friend group was the worst, especially now, when everyone was still trying to work out their issues after the SQUIP and didn't need any more emotions to get in their way.

Sighing to himself, Jake made his way into the cabin, smiling at the newly found feeling of warmth. The adolescent boy felt every single muscle relax, his previous shivering being replaced with a pleasant feeling instead.

Behind him, the three other teens slowly made their way inside the cabin, closing the door behind them.

"So, where can we put our bags?" Michael pursed his lip nervously. Unlike the others, it was his first time coming to Jake's cosy hideout in the woods, so he didn't really know his way around. Knowing him, Jake could already assume that Michael would be following Jeremy and Rich around all day tomorrow.

"This way," Jake motioned Michael towards him, getting the other two boys' attention. "Brooke, you know what to do. Make yourself at home," he smiled down at the girl, already making his way up the wooden stairs.

~°•*Time skip brought by writer's block*•°~

"Is that country music? Disgusting-" Rich commented as Jake turned on the radio in his living room, sprawled across the couch.

"Shush. Your taste in music isn't that much better," the taller boy narrowed his eyes at the shorter individual. He would often get a little annoyed whenever his music taste got insulted, which happened a lot apparently. Turns out country songs weren't the most popular genre of music anymore. Shame.

"That's not what you thought when you were vibing to my playlist-" Rich retorted, sticking his tongue out at Jake as Jeremy chuckled lightly.

"He's right. I'll never forget all that aggressive headbopping," Brooke cringed at the memory. "Never had you pegged as a hardcore Taylor Swift fan...But then again, Rich doesn't seem that type either," she laughed softly.

Rich shook his head, crossing his arms as he leaned into Jeremy slightly, face red. His boyfriend lazily wrapped an arm around his small waist, pulling him in closer so he was leaning his head on his shoulder. The taller boy smiled softly as he pressed a trail of soft kisses to the top of Rich's head, gently tightening his grip around the other male protectively. Rich responded by nuzzling into his partner's chest, smiling uncontrollably as he felt the warmth of Jeremy's embrace, his touch starved body happily shaking against his boyfriend as he longed to never have to part again. The rest of the teens rolled their eyes.

"Yeah, you're gay for each other, we get it. Get a room," Chloe roller her eyes and nudged Jeremy slightly, enough for him to momentarily look up from his boyfriend with a glare that could turn the girl's blood sour.

"Excuse me. I can cuddle my beautiful boyfriend whenever I want," the boy narrowed his eyes at the dirty blonde female, while aggressively reaching into his back pocket to pull out his red Uno reverse card.

A few chuckles scattered around the room as Chloe gave Jeremy her signature "you know you're in trouble now" look, briefly looking down as she flipped a wisp of dark golden curls behind an exposed shoulder.

"Are you seriously telling me to get a room? I feel betrayed," she laughed under her breath, a soft, relaxed sound. Usually that didn't mean the best of things.

"Maybe you should take his advice, Valentine," Rich clicked his tongue, one of his small arms still swung around Jeremy's neck, just one of his ways of showing that the two of them were a thing. For some reason, the red-streaked boy loved to wind up his friend, so of course he had to keep his arm there, just to wind her up. "Jere and I would hate to upset you by showing our affection, just because you're still single-"

"That's it," Chloe launched herself at the smaller boy, making sure to pin him down on the sofa so he couldn't escape. Not this time. "There's only one way to settle this, and we both know how it's gonna end," she smirked, letting her hands move to that one bit of exposed skin just above his waist...

Jenna and Jake gave each other excited looks from different sides of the room. This happened almost on a daily basis, and it wasn't like they'd complain; it was a pretty great show. Michael looked at Rich worriedly as Christine giggled quietly behind her hand.

"This should be interesting," Jake whispered to Michael when he leaned forward, trying to contain his curiosity.

"Mmmh," the other boy nodded his agreement, shuffling a little further away from Rich and Chloe and closer to Jake, for the sake of his own safety.

The teen's attention was soon back to the two friends, who hadn't made a move yet, through everybody in the room knew what to expect now. If they knew what was best for them, they wouldn't interfere.

A sharp squeal came from Rich as Chloe smirked, digging her fingers into his sides, making the boy squirm under her touch. It was starting. Soon enough, their tickle fight would get extremely intense, and they would no longer be held responsible for the injuries of anyone that stood too close.

Michael watched breathlessly as the duo rolled on the floor, soon ending up flipped over, with Rich towering over Chloe with a devilish grin plastered across his densely freckled face. Soon enough, the girl was squealing and making noises of a very uncharacteristic pitch and volume, as if being tickled meant Chloe's inner "little girl" persona would show through her tougher exterior. The spectators chuckled lightly as Rich jabbed at her sides, making her yelp helplessly, held down by his weight so he couldn't move. Chloe tried to move under him, in an attempt to curl up in foetal position to hide her most ticklish spots. However, the boy anticipated her move, deciding to pin her down by her shoulders to stop her from doing so, only to end up being kneed in the stomach.

"For the sake of our own safety, I suggest we get out of here," Jake chuckled to Michael, a small smile appearing on his face.

The other boy nodded and helped him up, biting his lip as their hands got in contact.

~~~

"So where exactly are you taking me?" Michael looked around at the trees scattered near the two of them, digging his hands further into his pockets to shield them from the cold. He should have followed Jake's example and taken a coat instead of just leaving the house like this.

"You'll see," Jake glanced down at Michael from over his shoulder, giving him a small nod and a smirk, just to tease him.

"Oh, come on! You didn't tell me where we were going when we came here either," Michael whined softly, tugging at Jake's sleeve. The other boy let out a low chuckle, deciding not to respond to his friend, but to keep him in silence instead, playing with the strap of the case for his camera. He carried that thing everywhere he went, as any person that was a passionate photographer would. Michael was personally more of a Polaroid kind of guy.

Jake's attention soon focused in on the sunset that could be seen in between the thin trunks of the trees surrounding them, a small beacon of warm light at the end of a dark horizon. He always loved looking at sunsets; they relaxed him in ways that nothing else could. Maybe it was the warm, calming colours of the sky, gradually fading into each other in a mixture of yellow, peach and pink, stained into the darkening sky. Maybe it was the way that stars would sometimes show up as this happened, or how sometimes clouds took over the beautiful colouring and carried it away into the darker depths of the endless sky, painting all in beautiful hues of peach and lavender.

Jake directed his focus back onto Michael before he could lose himself in the vibrant colours of the sky, shaking his head. They would get to their destination soon.

The taller male led the way through the trees, down the hill to what was probably the most beautiful place Michael had seen.

In front of the two boys was a lake, surrounded by thick, dense bushes of a species that he couldn't recognise. Near where they were standing, a bit of the lake extended underneath a wooden half-bridge, which was barely low enough for the water to each up to their ankles if they were sat down on it. The wonderful hues that stained the sky reflected in the cool, calm water, making the boy feel relaxed as he took in the view around him.

As breathtaking as the lake was, it would hardly be considered the most beautiful thing in sight. Adding to the picturesque landscape in front of Michael's eyes, many fireflies flew around in the air, lighting up the small pockets of darkness around them, shining like miniature torches that floated above the water, making it show up in the water and add to the breathtaking view even more.

"You like it?" Jake spoke softly to Michael, beckoning him towards the half-bridge, taking off his coat and setting it down at the base of the wooden platform before he sat down on the edge. The jock smiled uncontrollably as he slid his shoes and socks off, soon dipping his feet into the cold water, letting it run around him, making its way around his body, while also cooling him down. While the boys had walked, the wind has calmed down, meaning that the chilly temperatures they had encountered earlier were gone now, replaced with a half-warm, half-cool atmosphere instead.

Jake motioned for Michael to do the same, which he hesitantly did.

"Isn't the water cold?" The boy bit his lip, looking down at the water lapping at the shore.

"It's bearable, trust me. It's not freezing," Jake smiled at the other boy. He looked so cute in this lighting. Not that he liked him, obviously. "You'll get used to it after a bit, then it gets really nice."

"Oh, o-okay," Michael nodded and quickly repeated Jake's action.

"Well, are you gonna do it properly or what?" Jake stuck his tongue out at him teasingly.

"Yeah, hang on..." Michael bit his lip nervously as he cautiously dipped the tips of his toes in the cold water before darting up and hugging his knees. "That's freezing! Are you insane?"

Jake laughed softly, nudging Michael.

"Oh, come on! It's not that bad..."

"You only say that cause you're cold blooded," Michael crossed his arms, sticking his tongue out. 

"Wow, okay. I'll have you know I am very warm blooded." Jake huffed, pretending to be offended by his friend's statement.

"I wouldn't know. I'm not a vampire," Michael shrugged indifferently, biting the inside of his cheek.

"You could be."

"I'm not."

"Really? Your room is always so dark. You barely let any light in." Jake shook his head, letting out a happy sigh as he leaned into Michael slightly, goosebumps starting to line his arm due to the contact.

"I don't need light to fill the void in my soul," the other boy joked.

"Haha..." Jake awkwardly looked down at the water. Without realising, he had started blushing as the two of them got closer to each other during their little conversation, to their point where their shoulders would occasionally brush against each other. Oh god. There was no hetero explanation for the rush he was feeling right now, being alone with Michael. There couldn't be.

Jake looked at Michael, taking in every single detail of his face, of the way he moved, his traits. The taller boy smiled as he glanced at the other boy's eyes, almost getting lost in his irises, which had the same colour as pools of melted chocolate. Still, the lighting caused them to look a little more like honey, bringing contrast to his dark hair. A few faint freckled dusted his cheeks, a small feature that Jake hasn't noticed before.

"Something wrong?" Michael glanced at Jake, snapping him out of his trance.

"N-no, I'm fine," Jake smiled softly, shaking his head.

Awkward silence.

Jake took a deep breath.

"Hey, there's something I wanna say- it's kinda important," he sighed, moving his feet in the water as the sunset started to fade away, soon to be taken by the darkness.

"Mm? What's up?"

"So..." Jake thought back to a few nights ago, when he had searched the web for some sort of definition for the weird things he was feeling. It hadn't really meant much to him then, but right now, as he sat with Michael here in the fresh air, he knew the definition was exactly right for what he was going through. And, of course, he'd keep going through it, for the rest of his life, as you do.

"Well, come on. Spit it out, dude," Michael nudged him softly.

Jake fixated his gaze on a singular firefly hovering above the water, his mouth twitching into a faint smile.

"I've been thinking... About a bunch of stuff lately and uh-" the jock bit his lip anxiously, shoving his hands in his pockets nervously. "I'm pansexual, I think?" His eyes darted back up to Michael for a second. "I'm still tryna work it out, of course. But I'm almost 100% certain that's the label I'm looking for."

Jake bit his lip nervously, fiddling with his hands.

"Okay," Michael smiled softly. "Thanks for telling me. I know it's usually really nerve-wracking to come out to someone, so you have my full support," he leaned in to Jake slightly, their shoulders barely brushing against each other.

Jake bit his lip and nodded shyly, looking down at the water as he splashed a little with his feet. It was true, coming out was a terrifying thought. So far he had only told Michael, and maybe dropped a few subtle hints to Rich, but that was just because the two of them were really open about their sexualities, so he knew he'd be safe with them knowing. But what about his family? What would they say? Would they been care? They hadn't come back home for months, probably locked up in some foreign prison soon to be handed to the authorities, or still trying to run away from the police, ignoring the consequences of their actions. Too bad. If they couldn't be there for Jake, they weren't worth his time. He'd just never try to contact them again. Even if it hurt a little, at least that way he'd be okay in the long run, instead of being backstabbed yet again by his own relatives.

"So...how come you figured it out? Anyone special on your mind?" Michael's voice snapped Jake out of his trance, making him aware of his situation again.

"I...think so? I keep switching in between thinking he's cute to going into denial and telling myself I'm straight..." He sighed deeply, moving his feet in the cold water, creating rippling patterns in the dark liquid. The lake had lost its peach tint as the sun set, being replaced by a deep black and millions of little stars scattered in random places, creating wonderful constellations and little clusters of sparkling patches of silver.

"That's okay, you have all the time in the world to figure it out," Jake flinched as Michael put one arm around his shoulders, bringing himself closer to the other boy. He nervously looked at the groups of fireflies surrounding them, lighting up the vegetation around them. Some may say this was a fairly romantic setting, with it being so secluded from reality, so quiet and still. "Whatever happens, remember that your sexuality doesn't define you. Whatever you choose to identify as is something you should be proud of, no matter what," Michael whispered softly, curling up so his feet were under him.

Awkward silence. Only the occasional cricket sound could be heard.

"So? You're not gonna tell me about this guy, gal, or non-binary pal?" Michael half-smirked at Jake, nudging him playfully. The other boy felt his face heat up by an immense amount. Thank goodness for the dim lighting.

"Well...he's a huge dork. It's adorable," Jake chuckled softly, scratching at the back of his neck nervously before giving Michael an anxious smile. "He really loves video games and being with our friends, and he's so sweet and he's always there for me."

"Video games?" Michael held back a laugh. "You don't mean Jeremy, right? Oh, dude. That's a bad idea. Rich will destroy you if you try and get with Jeremy..."

"What? No! Jeremy's a great guy, but I'd never think of him as more than just a friend," Jake shook his head. "No, this guy is different. They do have a connection though."

Wait. Was that too obvious?

Michael nodded silently, leaning into Jake slightly. The taller boy felt his breath hitch for a second, making his cheeks flush again. Goddamnit.

"So? Tell me more."

"He's...really beautiful. Like, I can't even begin to describe it," Jake smiled dreamily. "I could get lost in his eyes. They're such a perfect colour, especially in certain lighting...I could stare into them all day."

Michael shifted a little in his space, brushing off an imaginary speck of dust from his jeans.

Jake hesitantly looked at the water, pulling his feet up and hugging his knees, feeling the cold wind on his exposed skin. He could feel his camera weighing his shoulder down from his bag, begging for him to take it out and get a few shots of this view. Slowly, he moved a little further away from the water, letting his hands make their way to the bag's zipper, before gently lifting the device out. Feeling Michael's eyes on him, Jake pressed the ON button with a shaky index finger, still staring at how the lake illuminated the fireflies' glow in such a perfect way, making them look like literal pockets of flames floating around in the fresh summer air. As he put the camera to his eye, he snapped a few shots, before going back to see how they turner out. He did this for a few minutes, going back to readjust the focus and lighting each time, bringing the photos closer to perfection each time.

The boy finally looked up to his friend, giving him a small, but genuine, grin.

"You wanna pose for me? I could capture you well in this lighting," he laughed shyly, running a hand through his hair nervously.

Michael nodded awkwardly, crossing his legs.

"Okay. Just do your own thing," Jake gave him a slightly bigger grin before bringing his camera to his eye.

After a few moments of waiting for all things to be in place and readjusting his position to get a better angle, he took a single photo. Quickly, he went back to view it and smiled at the result. He didn't even have to edit it this time.

In the photo, you could see Michael looking out towards the lake with a dreamy expression on his face. A few stray strands of dark hair fell right in front of the boy's eyes, almost highlighting the golden tints in his irises, where the light from the many fireflies swarming around him hit them. Where the light hit his face, a faint line of freckles could be seen running across his nose and cheeks, barely reaching the bottom of his forehead.

The way the focus had been set made Michael be the only clear thing in the photo, while the fireflies around him looked blurred, almost burning up the rest of his dark surroundings. Jake was satisfied, to say the least. He showed Michael the picture.

"Wow...how did you capture it so well?" The other boy looked at it in awe, clearly impressed by the way it had turned out.

"I tried my best," Jake smiled shyly, avoiding eye contact with the other boy at all costs. He couldn't look him straight in the eye, he'd have a huge gay panic moment and ruin it.

"It's amazing. It...I can't believe I'm saying this about a picture of me, but it looks so good..."

"You always look good-"

Oh no.

Jake hasn't meant to let that slip out. Sure, he believed it to be a true fact and counted Michael as evidence, and he thought it to himself every time he was alone with the other boy, but why would he say it out loud? Oh god, what if Michael figured out he was the person Jake was talking about earlier?

"I- er-" he stuttered frantically, trying to make up an excuse. "I mean- u-uhh..."

Michael looked at Jake in slight confusion for a few seconds, puzzled as to why there was awkward silence, before eventually piecing it all together. Realisation dawned upon him, bringing a bunch of frenzied butterflies to the pit of his stomach.

"I-" he bit his lip. "It's okay, really. Don't..."Michael sighed softly. "Don't make excuses, okay?"

Jake nodded quietly. Michael had subconsciously leaned into him, close enough for the other boy to feel his warm breath on his slightly parted lips, making his gaze quickly dart over to Michael's before immediately looking away, face burning. If only Jake leaned in by a few inches...

He looked at the other boy softly. He had clearly worked out Jake liked him, so why wasn't he mad? Why wasn't he telling him he didn't feel the same way? Was he playing with Jake's feelings, or did he genuinely feel the same way?

Only one way to find out.

Jake leaned in and closed the gap in between them, pressing their lips together gently enough for Michael to be able to pull away if he wanted. To his surprise, the other boy just pulled him closer, wrapping one hand around Jake's waist, while the other ran it's fingers through the boy's hair. He saw this as a sign to deepen the kiss a little. Jake could tell that Michael was really inexperienced, but he really didn't care. It still felt amazing, in his opinion.

After a few moments, the two pulled away, letting out a string of shaky breaths. The taller individual looked down at the ground shyly, a small giggle escaping his lips.

"It was me the while time, wasn't it?" Michael spoke softly, leaning into Jake slightly, smiling as the other boy wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"Yeah, it was."

Michael relaxed in the other boy's arms, losing himself in the bliss of it.

"I think I love you," Jake chuckled softly, glancing at the fireflies swarming around them again. They brought him comfort a lot of the time, and seeing them here always made him feel more relaxed.

"I think I love you too," Michael responded, reaching for the other boy's hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. Yawning sleepily, he rested his head on Jake's shoulder, burying it in the crook of the other boy's neck.

"Boyfriends?"

"Boyfriends."

The two boys sat in front of the water, huddled up against each other to stay warm, occasionally nuzzling one another as they watched the insects fly around them, bringing light to their cold, dark environment while the stars watched from so far up above. They both knew this would be one of their favourite memories for a long time, of not forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm working on the other requests too, fear not :)


	4. ~°•* Scars To Your Beautiful (Expensive Headphones) *•°~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TG: Rich's dad (mentioned), the things he does to Rich (mentioned)
> 
> ~~~
> 
> Here's that Expensive Headphones request! Sorry it took so long to come out :") I mainly forgot it was still sitting around in my drafts but uh. It's here now. 
> 
> Enjoy!

_Soulmates._

_They are often thought to be irrelevant to society by the majority of people, although some still go to look for that special someone._

Soulmates _can feel a part of each other's pain due to their close bond, even if they've never met. Usually, pairs with an extremely high compatibility will mirror any scars, bruises or markings their soulmate gained onto their own body. This is considered to be a very special bond, since it symbolises that they go through their pain together, as one_ _._

_~~~_

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

The boy groaned as he tried to turn off his annoying alarm, still keeping his eyes sealed shut in the hope that he could fall asleep again after this. He really should have stopped his alarm after school ended, but he was too lazy to, meaning it still went off at 6am sharp in the morning to wake him up, even in the summer holidays.

"Michael! Turn that thing off and get ready for school!" A woman's voice could he heard from downstairs. His mother.

Michael groaned, rolling out of his bed and feeling a few aches travelling down his body as he did so. He forced himself to open his eyes, finally managing to hit the off button to his irritating alarm. How could he forget? His first day at Middle Borough was today. 

He sighed softly and stretched for a few minutes in an attempt to wake up his aching limbs. What he didn't expect was for the ache to get more intense, traveling up his sides, towards his shoulder. In confusion, Michael lifted his pajama shirt over his head, glancing up and down his now exposed chest, biting his lip to the point where he tasted blood. That wasn't the biggest of his worries though, since the second he saw himself he felt his thoughts cloud with concern for his soulmate.

It seemed his they had managed to hurt themselves even more than usual, resulting in a bunch of blue-red bruises surrounding his sides and shoulders, with a few scratches scattered across their chest. As always, this made a mark on Michael's body as well. Many bruises and scars lined the sides of his torso, as well as a few red patches of skin scattered over his shoulders. A lot of his lower bicep seemed to have a small tear in the top layer of skin, which apparently bled for a short while too, judging by the tiny red stain on Michael's shirt. The boy had no idea how his soulmate must have gained so many injuries in the short time that he was sleeping.

He winced in pain when he finally stood up, running a hand through his dark brown hair as he scanned his surroundings for his signature red hoodie. He needed it more than ever now: the long sleeves would hide every single scratch on his body while the red colouring would give him enough time to sneak out of school before any bleeding became obvious if his soulmate somehow managed to reopen their wounds by accident.

 _I hope they're okay_... Michael sighed softly, finally finding his hoodie and swinging it over his shoulder on his way to the bathroom.

~~~

"What lesson do you have first?" Michael's best friend peered over his shoulder at his schedule, almost having to stand on his tiptoes to do so. Although they were both quite tall, Michael's friend lacked in the few inches that would allow him to be as tall as him. This usually resulted in a lot of teasing, which mostly ended up in a playfight, with Michael's friend trying (and failing) to prove that even though he was shorter, at least he was stronger.

"I have advanced math...then PE." Michael sighed. He hated sports with all his heart, thanks to some...past memories. Shaking his head, he tucked his schedule back in his pocket, looking back at his friend. "What about you, Jere?"

"Science and Art..." His friend muttered, looking at his schedule with a neutral expression. "That's not too bad, right? For the first day of freshman year? Maybe I'll even see Christine in my class..."

Michael chuckled lightly, ruffling his friend's curly hair before tucking his hands in the cool, deep pockets of his signature red hoodie.

"Well, I know for sure I'm gonna hate PE..." He sighed softly as he felt the fabric of his hoodie brush against one of the bruises on his shoulder. It left behind a stinging feeling. Of course, his flesh was exposed, so why hasn't he thought that it would hurt for things to touch it? "And I mean, like, more than I usually do."

"That's an achievement," Jeremy snorted behind a hand, biting his lip when Michael gave him a look. "But why? I know there'll be a bunch of guys you don't know that well there now that it's a new school, but it'll be the same stuff we did in middle school..."

Michael shook his head, trying to move his sleeve as far as he could from the sensitive area of skin in an effort to stop it from stinging due to the contact. It still seemed to ache a little after he moved his hoodie, probably due to his soulmate applying something to heal it, or maybe getting shoved into a locker. That happened too much in school, at least in Middle Borough.

"Yeah...it's not that." The boy bit his lip, wincing in pain as he felt a faint burning in one of his other wounds, on the left side of his torso. "It's my, uh, my soulmate." Michael rolled his eyes at Jeremy's confused expression. "I woke up with a bunch of cuts and bruises this morning. And I don't know how my soulmate got them, but they hurt like hell."

Jeremy gave his friend a worried look, gently wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He knew for a fact that it usually helped Michael feel better if someone hugged him (or at least attempted to), especially if he was in physical pain. Emotional pain would often require more than just a simple hug in order to it to calm down.

"Maybe you should tell your teacher? They might let you sit this lesson out," he suggested, biting the inside of his cheek.

Michael nodded quietly and leaned in to Jeremy's touch, thankful that at least they were in a quieter part of the school, where they could make physical contact without people assuming things.

"I wish I could," Michael shrugged, looking up at the ceiling. "But I don't think the teacher would believe me."

"True..." Jeremy sighed. "Just be careful in class, okay? Don't push yourself too hard, so at least you don't hurt yourself."

"I'll be careful," Michael smiled softly, leaning into Jeremy slightly. It felt nice to know that at least one person cared. He didn't know what he'd do without his friend, honestly. He was Michael's world.

Jeremy smiled softly and gently rubbed his friend's back, letting him rest his head on his shoulder. He bit the inside of his cheek in frustration when the bell signaling the start of class interrupted their moment, deciding to nod Michael goodbye before making his way to class. His friend did the same, feeling tension build up in his stomach as he made his way to math.

~~~

_Why does the locker room have to be so small?_

Michael looked around anxiously before spotting an empty corner and sighing in relief. The changing room was so crowded that at some parts of it, guys didn't even stand next to walls, but in the middle of the room.

The boy cringed as he tried to make his way through the other boys, awkwardly trying to avoid eye contact with anyone he did or didn't know. The corner he had his eyes on wasn't too far anyway. He could probably make it there before others did, if he walked fast enough without anyone getting in his way. Biting his lip anxiously, the boy tried his best to get to the other side of the room, occasionally bumping into another guy and awkwardly apologizing, while trying to avoid any other interaction at all costs.

The teen sighed in relief when he finally got to where he wanted to be, settling his bag down next to the bench in defeat. On his way to where he was now, he had gotten elbowed way too many times, resulting in more aches where his soulmate's bruises traveled down his body.

His soulmate.

Michael wondered what they might have done to result in getting so hurt, just while he was asleep. What could they possibly be doing to get so bruised just in the span of one night?

He shook his head, trying not to worry too much. If his soulmate was getting into trouble, there wasn't really much for him to do about it. The boy wished he could find a way to contact this person, to let them know that he was there for them, that they would be okay in the end. Michael hated the idea of somebody he was (or could be) close to getting hurt or being in pain, especially if it was as bad as this. What if they were beaten up at school? What if these bruises were the result of a failed suicide attempt? What if his soulmate would try again, only for them to succeed this time? What if Michael never got to meet them?

The boy snapped himself out of his trance when he felt his bruises ache again. It wasn't him this time though. He was in the corner, by himself, with everyone purposely avoiding him for no reason.

_Wait a minute...does my soulmate go to this school?_

If they felt the same thing he did when trying to make his way through the densely packed locker rooms, only seconds after Michael made it though, it could only mean one of two things.

Either his soulmate was just getting shoved a lot wherever they were now and it was just a coincidence, or they went to his school, and had the same lesson, right now. Michael felt his heart skip a beat at that thought. He could meet them. He could get to know that special person, if they didn't push him away.

Michael pinched himself as a short guy, probably around 5'5 in height, made his way through the mess that was the locker room, almost tripping a couple of times as he got elbowed roughly, too small to be seen by the other (tall) guys in the changing room.

_Oh?_

Michael had to admit, he seemed pretty cute. He had wavy, dark blond hair that barely fell in front of two beautiful hazel eyes in perfectly shaped curls. The boy's pale face was covered in layers of freckles scattered across his nose and cheeks, barely reaching the bottom of his forehead before starting to slowly fade out. Shoulders slumped, the boy anxiously looked around for any place that's wasn't densely populated by jocks and popular guys, before spotting Michael's corner. Maybe he mistook it, but Michael could have sworn the other boy sighed in relief.

_He can't...he can't be my soulmate, right? There's no way._

Michael pulled his bag closer to him and nodded at the other boy in acknowledgement, before awkwardly looking down at the floor.

The other boy muttered what seemed to sound like a 'thanks' before settling his own bag down. A small, circular pin on the front pocket of the teens bag brought Michael's attention: it looked very familiar. There wasn't really a complicated pattern to it or anything, just three coloured stripes. Pink, purple, blue.

Michael smiled softly at the pin. It took his less than a second to remember what those colours meant.

_Oh god. I swear, if I ruin this-_

Michael shook his head and looked at the floor. He started to change into his PE kit, almost getting stuck in his shirt a couple of times. He anxiously slipped on his PE hoodie, hoping nobody happened to notice his scars and bruises, since there was no way anyone would listen to his "excuse".

On his way out, he looked back at the other boy, not really wanting to leave him behind by himself. He knew it wouldn't be socially acceptable to wait for him since they were basically strangers, but he would have loved to try to spark up a conversation with him. Something about this guy just drew Michael to him, even if they hadn't even had a proper conversation or anything.

His breath hitched as he caught a glimpse of the boy's shoulder. Scarred skin. It looked a lot like the one of Michael's shoulder, too. He wasn't actually...

The young male did the mental version of an exasperated eye roll at his own thoughts and forced himself to head to the sports hall. There was no way, right? He would have said something, after all, Michael was next to him in the locker room. He would have spotted his bruises...

~~~

"I'm telling you, dude, I could feel him getting elbowed-" Michael tried to explain his thoughts to his friend, backing it all up with passionate hand gestures and an occasional bite of his sandwich in an aggressive manner.

Jeremy sighed.

"Michael, you're overthinking it all. Soulmates don't feel stuff like you getting elbowed randomly, they only feel like, real pain..." His friend explained, looking down at his salad and picking out the things he didn't like. "And anyway, why are you so fixated on the idea of finding your soulmate? I already gave up on mine ages ago." Jeremy bit his lip, flicking a piece of lettuce to the other side of their lunch table.

"I know, but...I want to meet mine. I know you don't understand why but I want to get to know that person." Michael sighed, leaning his head on his friend's shoulder. "They would get me. I mean, you get me too. But it's not the same, you know?" He groaned, burying his head in his hands.

"Okay. Well, it would be embarrassing if you walked up to this guy telling him you're soulmates when it turned out it was all a coincidence," Jeremy sighed, rubbing his friend's back. "And trust me, you're a pro at making a fool of yourself sometimes."

"Look who's talking," Michel chuckled lightly, looking at this friend through the gaps in between his fingers.

"Whatever. What I was trying to say, before you interrupted me," the brown-haired boy shoved Michael playfully, "is that we need to find a way to test it."

The taller boy nodded slowly, understanding what his friend was saying. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably when he noticed his possible soulmate enter the cafeteria, tensing up his shoulders. His eyes were basically drawn to him, so it was pretty hard for him to look away.

"Is that him?" Jeremy smirked, nudging Michael. "He looks cute," he teased, sticking his tongue out at his friend when he saw his annoyed expression.

"Shut up! What if he hears you?"

"He's on the other side of the hall-" the shorter boy rolled his eyes, repositioning himself in his seat. "So? Did you catch his name when your teacher was taking attendance?"

Michael bit his lip, fighting the urge to say "No, he didn't throw it". He almost did, but decided to just nod quietly instead.

"It's Richard. Richard Go... something. I didn't hear his last name very well. It sounded foreign. Like, not American, y'know? Do you reckon he has Polish roots or something? It sounded Polish. I think. Or maybe Russian or something. I don't understand Europe, even though one of my moms used to live there...oh god, I'm rambling-" Michael sighed softly, burying his head in his hands again.

"You sure sound like you have a crush on him," Jeremy chuckled softly. "Maybe we should work out if he's actually your soulmate though..."

Michael let out a tired noise in agreement and turned to face Jeremy.

"Okay, uh. Just jab me in the sides or whatever. My bruises are there so it should hurt enough," the dark-haired boy sighed, biting his lip. Oh, the lengths you have to go to find your soulmate.

"Dude, are you sure? I really don't wanna hurt you," Jeremy cringed, getting ready for it.

"Just do it. Please?"

"Fine."

Michael winced in pain when Jeremy finally hit his bruise, right in the middle. He cringed, curling in on himself. Who knew somebody with noodle arms could actually hit like that?

"Please tell me that was worth it?" Michael bit his lip, leaning into his friend.

"Well, look for yourself."

Prompted by his friend, Michael anxiously looked up to where Richard was sat, only to see the other boy with his hand over where Michael had been hit, biting his lip, as if trying to distract himself from it. The dark-haired boy felt butterflies flutter in his stomach. Well, at least his suspicions were true. This guy really was his soulmate.

"Go talk to him," Jeremy nudged him gently, motioning towards where the other guy was sat. "Get to know him."

"What? No! What if he thinks I'm a creep?" Michael protested, but Jeremy wasn't having any of it.

"If you can force your best friend to talk to his crush, so can I. Now go," Jeremy narrowed his eyes at his friend, turning back to his salad. "I'll be here if you need me, okay? Just go talk to him and if he doesn't say anything, just come back. Maybe bring him too."

Michael sighed, looking towards Richard again.

"Fine," he rolled his eyes, tucking his hands deep into the pockets of his hoodie. "Wish me luck."

Michael nodded his farewell to Jeremy and nervously made his way towards his soulmate's table, feeling his heart race faster by the second. His adrenaline levels were probably through the roof at this point. He could have sworn if anything else happened on top of this he might actually explode. This was so nerve-wracking.

"Hey," Michael smiled warmly towards his soulmate as he finally approached him, internally panicking at every little thing he did.

Was "hey" too casual? Should I have gone with "hi" instead? Or is that too basic? What about "yo" or "sup"? They're probably better than "hey", right?

"Hi," Richard quietly replied, moving a little further away from Michael, making himself look smaller than he already was.

_Oh._

"You're Richard, right? We're in the same PE class... I- er- I saw you were eating alone so I thought I should join you?" Michael pursed his lip, glancing back towards Jeremy's table, just to see his friend give him an enthusiastic thumbs up.

"Suit yourself, I guess," Richard replied quietly, picking at his school lunch. "And it's Rich, by the way."

"Oh, okay, Rich. I'm Michael," he smiled softly, hoping being friendly would get this kid to loosen up.

"Cool name."

"You too."

Michael glanced down at his sad-looking sandwich, taking another bite and swallowing it slowly, feeling uncomfortable as an awkward silence took over their pathetic excuse of a conversation. He had to think of something to say soon: by the looks of it, Rich wasn't the type of person to end a long silence like this, but to just sit though it and let himself suffer, along with the other people in said conversation.

_Come on! Say something, anything!_

"So....what's your opinion on soulmates?" Michael bit his lip, cringing internally at what just left his mouth.

_No! Anything but that!_

"Soulmates?" Rich bit his lip, deciding to completely discard his lunch and turn to face the other boy instead. "Strange conversation starter, but alright. I guess I don't really...care about that stuff."

Michael felt his heart shatter into a million pieces, each one of them burying itself deep into him, stabbing at his helpless body as if he was nothing but a toy to be played with, a simple target that existed only to be hit by nothing else other than a creature who lived off the pain of others. He wondered if soulmates could feel emotional pain too.

"I mean... I'm pretty sure my soulmate wouldn't care about me, so why would I care about them, right?" Rich shrugged, crossing his arms before narrowing that pair of breathtakingly beautiful eyes at Michael and sending a whole flock of butterflies straight towards his stomach. "Why?"

"I- er-" Michael let out a few incoherent phrases, trying to get his thoughts together into actual sentences.

_Shìt! What do I say to that? "Hey, Rich, I know I've just met you, but I'm this weirdo who's totally fixated on the idea of soulmates and I think we're meant for each other. Wanna hang or something?" Obviously not!_

"I- errrr- no reason?" He bit his lip, hoping Rich would just buy that and change the subject.

Apparently not. After a few seconds of the other boy looking at Michael in confusion, he resorted to pulling him out of the cafeteria and towards a more secluded area of the school, behind the building, to be more exact.

It was awfully quiet there today. Only the occasional chirp from a bird and the soft sound of the gentle wind shaking at the old wooden fence would be heard, leaving the two boys in a pretty long awkward silence. Again. Michael cursed himself for even trying to approach Rich. He should have just stayed with Jeremy until lunch ended and found out more about his soulmate before approaching him, right? He should have been smarter than this.

The long grass tickled at Michael's foot, where his sock has lowered a little to expose a bit of skin underneath the cuffs of his black jeans. He did his best to ignore the feeling, deciding to stare off into the distance instead as he yet again attempted to strike up a conversation.

"So..." Michael cleared his throat. "Why did you bring me to such a quiet part of school?" He awkwardly sat down next to the brick wall, feeling the coolness of it go through his skin. It was weird; he couldn't tell if he liked it or hated it.

"I think you know," Rich sighed, picking at the grass in front of him, ripping out a few pieces and pulling them apart in his hands, before letting them fall back to the ground helplessly. He looked up at Michael with narrowed hazel eyes. "You think you're my soulmate, don't you?"

Michael froze, biting his lip. Okay, this guy was getting straight to the point. What was he supposed to say to that?

"Erm...yeah..." Michael nervously scratched the back of his throat, looking down at the ground sheepishly. He didn't really feel the need to scratch, but it felt appropriate for this situation, if that made sense.

"Sorry, dude. I'm straight," Rich shrugged, giving Michael a careless look. "So... it's probably just a coincidence that led you to believe that..."

"That's bull. I saw the pin with the bi pride flag on your bag in the changing rooms..." Michael looked at the shorter boy in frustration, feeling his heart shatter into so many pieces yet again, after realising that his soulmate would rather pretend to not be into guys than have an actual conversation with him. That hurt.

"I'm a LGBT+ supporter. My cousin's bi. Your point is?" Rich pursed his lip, glaring at Michael. "I'm not your soulmate, so you can just go back to your normal lunch break things, now that it's all settled." He rolled his eyes, crossing his arms in front of him to show that he was trying to block Michael the best he could, doing his best to avoid any further conversation.

The taller boy wasn't so convinced. He felt his hoodie itch against his bruises, as if it was a sign to act now or never.

_Speak now or forever hold your peace._

_..._

_Oh my god, why did my mind say that._

He snorted at his own thoughts. This wasn't a wedding, so why-

_Whatever._

After a short moment of hesitation, Michael lifted the bottom of his hoodie up to barely show the layers of dark bruises and scars at the bottom of his torso. He clicked his tongue smugly as the other boy's eyes widened in what seemed to be not surprise, but... something similar.

He did notice my bruises in the changing rooms. He's just either really scared of commitment and soulmates, or just really taken aback that I played the bruises card.

"If I'm not your soulmate, how come we both have those?" Michael smiled softly, letting his hoodie drop back down over his scarred side. "I'm sure you're familiar how soulmate bonds work?"

Rich nodded quietly, taking a step back from Michael, making himself smaller as he cowered in front of the taller boy.

"What do you want?" He whimpered softly, trying to avoid eye contact with the dark-haired boy. "Please, just leave me alone..."

"Rich. Those bruises are bad," Michael sighed. He really badly wanted to get closer to the other male, but knew Rich might get intimidated if he did. Judging by his behaviour, this boy had a lot of trust issues and bottled up grief. "Please, tell me how you got them. I want to help you. It's concerning, how dark they are, and how many... I just want to know you're okay. Maybe not now. But soon."

The smaller boy took another step back, his eyes anxiously darting around for any way to escape this situation. After a few moments of silence, he decided to let his guard down and sit down in front of Michael, patting down the ground beside him.

"Fine. I guess...you deserve to know. I have no idea why you'd care enough about me to listen to me talk about this or whatever but..." Rich sighed, crossing his legs under him.

Michael waited impatiently for the other boy to speak up, his bitten fingernails digging into the palms of his sweaty hands.

"It's my dad. I don't wanna say too much about it, but he's changed ever since my mom died a few years ago," Rich looked down at the ground wistfully, twisting a single piece of grass around his small fingers, focusing more on it than his actual story telling. "My brother used to be around to protect me when our dad started drinking, but ever since he's moved out into that apartment with his girlfriend, there's nobody else there to help me barricade the door, and I'm too weak to do it on my own..."

Michael watched silently as his soulmate hugged his knees, resting his head in between them and closing his eyes.

"Since there's no way I can keep him out of my room, he comes in whenever. Even when he's drunk. And he gets angry at every little thing I do. And I mean anything." Rich sniffed a little, trying to hold in his tears. "I know it's not his fault. He can't really control his anger when he's like that so he doesn't know what he's doing-"

The shorter boy was interrupted mid-sentence as Michael finally caught on to what Rich was trying to say and enveloped him in a warm, tight hug. He never wanted to let go, not if it meant that as long as they were like this, time would be still, that Rich could maybe momentarily forget about what kind of stuff happened at home and just relax in Michael's arms, for forever.

"That's why you're hurt, isn't it? Your dad..."

Rich nodded quietly and buried his head in Michael's shoulder, still trying to hold his tears in. It was really working, since a few droplets still managed to sneak their way out and make their way down his densely freckles cheeks, down to his soulmate's signature red hoodie, where they would slowly start to dampen it. Michael didn't care. He just wanted Rich to be okay, even though they only just met a few hours ago. Rich was his soulmate, and that counted for something.

"Hey. He can't hurt you here, okay? I'll take care of you," Michael whispered softly, gently rubbing the other boy's back as he leaned into him slightly. "You seem so...unique. in a good way. Like, amazing. I want to get to know you, but I can't just watch by as you get hurt like that. You're beautiful, okay? I know it's weird to hear that now, just after we properly met, but it's true. I want to keep you safe..."

"There's only so much you can do..." Rich whimpered quietly, clinging onto his hoodie. "I'm gonna go back home after school finishes. And it's all gonna start over again."

Michael sighed, keeping the other boy close to him. If only he could do something about it...

_I got it!_

"How about you lived with me? I mean, I get that it's a lot. Especially since we've only properly talked, like, now. But we're soulmates, so my mums would understand." Michael smiled softly, trailing an arm down the other boy's side, looking down at him hopefully. "My moms are both really nice. They'd love you, y'know? You'd be okay."

Rich pursed his lip, shaking his head as the bell signalling next class interrupted his train of thought. He moved away from Michael and gave the other boy a sad smile, running a hand through his hair.

"I'll think about it."

~~~ 3 years later ~~~

"My god, Rich, stop being so slow! If you don't hurry up, I'm gonna drive to school without you," Michael whined as he dragged the other boy out of his room.

The shorter male rolled his eyes as he struggled to get his school bag over his shoulders, playfully sticking his tongue out at him.

"Aw, come on! You wouldn't do that!" Rich laughed softly, leaning into the other boy slightly.

"True. I love you too much to do that," Michael grinned, grabbing for the shorter boy's hand.

Over the three years they had known each other, Rich really had changed, for the best, of course. As prompted by Michael, the young boy had gradually learned to love himself, to be more outgoing, to be himself instead of hiding behind a quiet kid persona. Rich bonded with Jeremy and a bunch of Michael's other friends almost immediately, resulting in his self-esteem growing even more. It felt good to know that Rich finally felt good in his own skin, even though it took his a couple of years to learn that.

As he expected, Michael's moms let his soulmate move in almost immediately, to his delight. The two boys spent a lot of time together, doing normal friend things, like pulling random all-nighters together in their room, dyeing each others' hair (that one red streak in Rich's hair still remained as evidence to that. He kept redyeing it every time it washed out, since he loved both the colour and the memories linked back to it) and pranking Michael's moms whenever they got the chance. Over the span of the next year, their friendship grew and grew, soon coming to blossom into something more than friendship. It took them a couple of months, but they eventually confessed to each other.

And now here they were, three years after they met, on their two year anniversary.

Although there were many things the couple would disagree on, they had to agree on one thing: those were the best two years of their lives.

Michael was snapped out of his train of thought as Rich waved his hand in front of his face, stifling a laugh.

"Are you okay? You kinda zoned out for a second," the shorter boy smiled innocently, grabbing his boyfriend's hand again.

"Never been better," Michael grinned uncontrollably, pulling Rich closer so he could get an arm around his waist. "Happy two year anniversary.",

"You too," the dark blond chuckled lightly as he lost his balance for a second, leaning more into Michael. "I love you so much."

"I love you more," Michael smiled softly, looking down at his perfect partner. He never thought he'd actually get to meet his soulmate, but now that he had known him for so long, he couldn't even complain about the system.

Maybe it seemed really unlikely, but they were perfect for each other. They completed each other in ways that neither could explain, and maybe that's what made them such a good match. Their blessings outweighed each other's flaws, in ways that only the perfect match could.

After all, they were soulmates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Roses are red,
> 
> Violets are blue,
> 
> I forgot I needed to publish this chapter
> 
> You probably did too :") 
> 
> ~ Jensen


	5. ~°•* Newsflash: Antisocial Headphones Kid Helps The Shippers Out (Spicybis) *•°~

The taller boy watched the other pensively, carefully brushing the tip of his thin index finger along the side of his faded blue mug in a small semi-circle, before returning to the starting point and repeating the action absent-mindedly. For the whole time that his friend had been at his house, he couldn't help but notice that the young male had been pretty quiet the whole time, as well as forgetting the things he'd always remember, like putting the milk and sugar in his coffee, which resulted in him almost choking on the bitterness of it after taking a long sip. A faint brown stain rested onto the beige carpet, as obvious evidence to what happened. 

The taller sighed softly.

He turned towards his friend slowly, taking in how zoned out he seemed to be.

"Hey, buddy. Rich, my bro, my dude, my guy-" The boy nudged his short friend gently, smiling softly when Rich snapped out of it and looked at him, blinking slowly. "Are you good?"

"What? Yeah," Rich bit his lip, repositioning himself in the sofa so that he wasn't sinking into the back of it. He hated it when that happened for a very valid reason: since all his friends were taller than him, he couldn't even begin to think of the millions of times they had teased him about his height due to his legs not being long enough to allow his feet to touch the floor. Rolling his eyes, he gave his friend a glare that said 'Michael, don't you dare' before crossing his legs under him, letting one of his arms fall to his side, almost touching his friend.

"Y'know, you've been acting pretty unusual lately. Why so dreamy?" Michael gave him a quizzical look, chuckling at his friend's attempt at looking like he had no idea what he was talking about. "What I mean is... You've literally...well, maybe not literally but... You've had your head in the clouds a lot lately. What's up with you?"

"N-nothing!" Rich shook his head, letting strands of his hair fall in front of his face. The boy's cheeks flushed slightly, making the fading red streak in his hair clash with the pale pink colouring that had gradually taken over his face. Michael smirked.

"You've been pretty shy too, which is kinda uncharacteristic of you..." he narrowed his eyes at his friend, a little trick he has learned that would usually get the truth out of Rich. "If you don't tell me what's up, I'll just assume that you killed someone and are jumpy cause you did a bad job hiding the body." 

Awkward silence.

"Richard," Michael raised an eyebrow. "Tell me, or I'll get Jeremy and Jake to come over and get it out of you."

"What? No!" Rich shook his head.

"I'm gonna do it," Michael started reaching for his phone, not breaking his stare.

"No, you won't."

"I will."

"No."

"Yes."

"I hate you."

"Love you too."

Rich sighed softly, running a hand through his red-streaked hair.

"If I tell you, you're not gonna tell anyone, right?" he avoided looking Michael, deciding to take an interest in the coffee stain on the carpet instead, staring at it like it was a piece of artwork displayed at a museum. He would often do that, since suddenly "taking interest" in something on the ground often meant he had an excuse to avoid eye contact, therefore making an awkward situation a little less awkward.

"Not even Jeremy?" 

"Especially not Jeremy," Rich shook his head, moving a little so he could hug his knees. He eyed Michael warily.

"Why? Do you have a crush on him or something?" Michael laughed softly, nudging his friend playfully.

Silence. Rich awkwardly rested his head in-between his knees, closing his eyes. Maybe his friend hadn't noticed the faint blush that had managed to creep up on his face.

"Oh my god, you do, don't you?"Michael gasped softly, letting out a quiet laugh. "Jeremy, huh? I should have seen that one coming."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Rich looked up at his friend, narrowing his eyes at him.

"Well," Michael took another sip of his strong-enough-to-chew black coffee, finishing off what was in his mug before putting it down next to Rich's already empty one. "You guys have been... really close lately. Sometimes even literally. Don't think I haven't noticed how you were almost cuddled up to him when we had a movie night," he smirked, crossing his arms. "If you moved to the right a little, you would have pretty much been in his lap."

Rich pouted, blushing furiously.

"We weren't that close!"

"You kind of were. But it's all good; I'm pretty sure Jeremy was enjoying it as much as you were," the brunette winked at him, nudging him playfully. He chuckled when he noticed Rich hiding his face behind a pair of pale freckled hands. "You should tell him how you feel. Knowing Jeremy, he'd most likely be thrilled to be with someone like you."

"No way," Rich shuddered. "I wouldn't be able to. I'm terrified of rejection," he explained, pursing his lip softly. The blush on his face had faded a little, even though Michael could still see a faint trace of pink travelling from one side of his face to the other. There was something funny about seeing someone who'd normally be confident be reduced to a blushing mess hiding behind their hands.

With a sigh, Michael grabbed the TV remote from the coffee table, pressing the ON button and looking at Rich one last time before focusing on the screen in front of them.

~~~

Jeremy crossed his legs under his chair as he tried to make sense of his teacher's ongoing ramble about the Pythagorean Theorem. This wasn't an ongoing occurrence; usually Jeremy could understand maths pretty easily, especially when it was a concept he already knew about, but for some reason his brain just decided to shut off today, leaving him in the dark, surrounded by a bunch of very menacing triangles screaming at him from the worksheet on his desk. 

Screw it.

The boy yawned sleepily and leaned back in his seat. There was no point in doing any of the work if he wasn't in the right mindset. His math grades were already good enough for him and one laid-back day wasn't gonna change that, so he might as well just take his mind off the migraine that was printed on the sheet in front of him.

Instead of focusing on the nightmare in front of him, he let his gaze drift towards a much more pleasant thing to be looking at: a certain individual in the third row, in the seat next to the window. Jeremy smiled softly.

The person of his interest was slouched over his maths book, writing down something (probably the formula) on the dog-eared pages of his maths book. From where he was sat, Jeremy could just about see the boy's long, brown lashes resting above his eyes, shielding his eyes from the bits of sunlight that had somehow made their way through the teen's lush red locks. It made a nice contrast with his hazel (mostly green) eyes, making Jeremy's heart flutter. 

He loved everything about this boy: from the way he looked and acted towards him and Michael to the little details that nobody else seemed to notice, like how his small, freckled nose scrunched up slightly in that really cute manner whenever he laughed, or how his shoulders raised whenever he was shy, nervous, you name it. Who couldn't love the way the boy's hair fell over his eyes, the way it looked kind of messy, but in the turning-heads-as-he-enters-the-room kind of way? Who couldn't love the way his soft laugh would escape those slightly parted, rose-coloured lips? Jeremy would give anything to be close to the other boy's well-built figure, holding him close by his waist while tracing the side of his cheek with one thumb as he slowly leaned in and-

Woah, okay. He was getting a little too ahead of himself.

Still, there was no doubting it; in Jeremy's eyes, Richard Goranski easily went above and beyond the definition of what others may call perfect. He knew that nobody would agree with him; after all, what happened at Halloween was still fresh in everybody's minds, making them feel repulsed just at the mention of his name, even though Jake had forgiven him and hadn't even attempted to press charges, but he didn't care. To him, Rich was nothing less than the best, kindest, cutest person he'd ever met. It was ridiculous how nobody else saw it right? What wasn't there to love about him?

Jeremy tensed up as he felt somebody's eyes on the back of his neck, forcing himself to stop pining over Rich for a second and look away, pretending to suddenly be very interested in the worksheet in front of him, in the hope that him looking in Rich's direction was just him thinking...very intensely.

Maybe whoever was looking at him hadn't noticed.

~~~

"Hey, guys," Jake greeted Jeremy, Michael and Rich as they slowly approached their usual table, still half asleep from their maths lesson. 

The three boys muttered a few words of acknowledgement to their friend, tiredly dumping their school bags onto the benches. Due to multiple past events that had happened in the cafeteria, they ate outside now. It was alright during summer, but the tree above them didn't provide much shelter when it rained, so they had to choose between getting soaked or hiding out in the school library, hoping they wouldn't get kicked out for being too loud.

"How was geography?" Michael asked Jake as he took his lunchbox out of his bag, taking a small bite of his squashed ham sandwich. Jeremy remembered that Michael decided to start bringing in his own food for a change, so he'd have more time to get closer to everyone instead of driving to 7'11.

"It was okay," Jake shrugged, picking at his salad. Jeremy recalled him saying something about going vegetarian for a month. He didn't give a reason why, not that he needed to, of course. "You guys had math, right?"

The "m" word was enough for Rich to groan and rest his head on the table, closing his eyes. The other boys chuckled lightly at his reaction. It was a known fact that Rich hated geometry with every single fibre of his being. 

"Ah. I'll take that as a yes," Jake chuckled. "Let me guess, algebra?"

"Worse," Jeremy glanced down at Rich sympathetically. He noticed Michael watching him like he was analysing the situation, so he quickly looked back up at Jake. "Geometry."

"Yikes."

"Yeah," Michael raised an eyebrow at Jeremy questioningly, making him flush pink. What if Michael figured it out? "But still...who doesn't hate algebra? It's like Maths and English had a child and everyone hated it."

Rich snorted, making Michael flinch in annoyance. 

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing. It's just funny to hear the maths nerd say he hates algebra," the red-streaked boy clicked his tongue, shifting a little in his seat. "Aren't you supposed to be, like, really into math and fight anyone who disses it or something?"

Michael rolled his eyes, taking a bite of his sandwich.

"I'm not that much of a nerd!" he laughed. "More of a geek. Anyway, you're tge one that's been more interested in maths lessons lately," he stated coldly, looking straight into Rich's eyes with a confidence that seemed pretty uncharacteristic of him, giving a little smirk, only for the other boy's hazel eyes to widen. Clearly, there was something else going on between them that Jeremy (and probably Jake too) didn't know about.

Jake cleared his throat awkwardly. 

"I'm just gonna...go get a nutrient bar from the cafeteria..." he stated quietly, starting to get up from his seat. Either he sensed some tension between Rich and Michael, or one of them was planning something and he was in on it too. Who'd ever know? Jake was pretty good at keeping secrets; it wouldn't be surprising to Jeremy if he was part of some scheme Michael made for no reason.

Rich looked at Jake helplessly as the taller boy walked inside the school building, turning the heads of any girl (and a couple of guys, too) that he walkes past. As always, the majority of the student body was swooning simply over his existence. Nothing new there, obviously. 

Michael chuckled softly.

"Do you reckon I scared him off?" he joked, finishing off his sandwich and crushing the tinfoil into a small ball. "He walked off pretty fast."

Jeremy shrugged and looked down at his own food, scrunching his nose up in disgust. It seemed his small water bottle leaked in his lunchbox again, resulting in a soggy sandwich. To the teen's dismay, the bread seemed to have taken to the lookalikes of a wet sponge (and probably the taste too). His eyes looked over it, taking in every detail of how gross it all looked before shaking his head and slamming his lunchbox shut.

"Hey, don't starve. Have some of mine," Rich kindly offered, moving his food to a little to the left, so it was inbetween the two boys. Jeremy grabbed an apple and sunk into the table, occasionally biting it. He felt pretty bad about taking some of Rich's lunch, even if he knew his friend most likely didn't mind.

The boys ate in silence for a few minutes. Jake seemed to be taking his sweet, sweet time getting that nutrient bar.

"So..." Michael shifted in his seat slightly, leaning in towards his friends over the table. "Are you guys free on Saturday?" he pursed his lip nervously.

After a moment of hesitation, Jeremy nodded slowly. 

"Yeah, I'm free."

"Me too," Rich piped up.

The boys noticed Michael's lip twitching into a small smirk. That was never a good sign.

"Okay, well... you're both free...and on Saturday Jake's meeting my family..." Michael looked up at them, a mischievous grin plastered on his face. ".. which means I'm busy. So you two," he gestured between the Rich and Jeremy, "are going on a date."

Jeremy felt his face burn a deep red and raised his hands up to it, trying to subtly hide his flushed face without bringing too much attention to himself. He glared at Michael from behind his navy blue cardigan sleeve, feeling himself start sweating excessively. Oh no. Not today. Please, he really couldn't worry about his hands being sweaty while Michael was trying to set him up with the drop-dead-gorgeous guy he was head over heels in love with, especially now that he knew they'd get even sweatier the more he thought about it. 

"U-uh...why...would we date?" Rich could be heard speaking quietly next to Jeremy, his voice quivering slightly. He almost sounded scared. 

"Because," Michael waved one hand around frantically in an effort to explain himself, "I'm just doing you both a huge favour here. It's pretty damn obvious you're both pining over each other like your lives depend on it, so it's about time someone got you together."

"Wh- Michael-"

"Don't say anything. Please, at least try to hang out? It's too painful to watch you both being so oblivious to the other one liking you," Michael rolled his eyes, crossing his arms in front of him. 

Jeremy sighed.

"Okay, if we..." he cleared his throat nervously, hoping Rich couldn't pick up on his anxiety, "met up...would you shut up about this and never mention it again?"

"Fine. But only if you call it a date," Michael smirked, giving a wink. Jeremy groaned, leaning his head onto the table as an excuse to hide his face from Rich, just in case he started blushing again without realising. 

"Fine, it's a date," Rich and Jeremy muttered quietly, avoiding eye contact with Michael (and each other). The gay silence in-between them was so intense it could probably be cut with a knife. 

"Hey, kids," Jake's voice could be heard from behind Jeremy, making him flinch. "Everyone's quiet. Did I miss something?"

A snort could be heard from the other side of the table. Michael stuck his tongue out at Jake playfully.

"Only that you owe me a Hamilton," he smiled teasingly, slamming his lunchbox shut. 

"Dangit," Jake sighed, taking a neatly folded $10 note from his pocket and handing it to Michael. 

Jeremy rolled his eyes, shuffling a little closer to Rich. Hey, maybe they weren't gonna end up together, but that didn't mean he wasn't gonna make the most of this date. He couldn't wait until Saturday. 

~~~

Rich was sat down on a bench, two streets down from Jeremy's house, legs crossed, eyes half-closed, heart racing. There were 20 minutes until he had to show up at the other boy's house, but he couldn't wait at home any longer without going mental, all antsy with anticipation. Five o'clock couldn't come soon enough. He just wanted to be with him... alone, for the first time in months, without Michael, or Jake, or anyone else to stop them from getting as close as possible. Now that there was nobody else with them, he could really get to know Jeremy for the awesome person he was, instead of having to just guess around when it came to things Rich wanted to ask him about, but never could find an appropriate time in conversation.

Of course, being at Jeremy's house for said date was definitely a bonus; it felt good to know it wasn't anything too...formal, even if that may have been enjoyable too. Being at Jeremy's house meant no dress code, no "appropriate" way to do anything, no random strangers surrounding them. It felt casual, but that was a good thing. 

The boy smiled softly, checking his watch impatiently. 

15 minutes. 

"Oh, hey, Rich. You're pretty early," a familiar voice piped up, taking Rich away from his thoughts. 

Oh no. Oh no no. That wasn't...

"Jeremy, is this your date?" an adult man walked into Rich's field of vision, carrying a couple of bags of groceries. He seemed to be in his forties or fifties, judging by the couple of wrinkles on his forehead. Apart from the same chestnut brown hair and a pair of clouded blue eyes, he didn't really resemble Jeremy, though it was easy to tell he was his dad somehow. 

"Yeah," Jeremy stood in front of Rich shyly, giving a little smile. "Do you wanna come in now? There's only 10-15 minutes until 5 anyway."

"Uh...sure," Rich laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck anxiously, feeling his face go a little pink. This was getting too real; it was kind of overwhelming.

"Cool," Jeremy made an awkward finger-gunning motion before helping Rich up from the bench, just as an excuse to grab his hand. Obviously, he let go of it after he got up, but it felt nice to hold his hand, even if it was just for a few seconds.

The two boys walked towards Jeremy's house in uncomfortable silence, staring at the ground in front of them while Mr Heere stayed in the back, occasionally looking at Rich to see if he was the real deal. Quiet sounds could be heard whenever a bird flapped it's wings above their heads, probably after emerging a nearby bush when they came too close. Apart from that, there wasn't much to hear or talk about, so the group silently made their way into the house, where Jeremy immediately pulled Rich upstairs to his room, away from any embarrassing remark his dad might make. 

"So...hey," Jeremy spoke softly, crossing his legs under him after he sat down.

"Hi," Rich grinned happily, glancing around Jeremy's room and taking in every detail. "Nice place." 

"Thanks," the taller boy chuckled anxiously, quickly kicking a pair of shorts under his bed. Rich pretended not to notice, hoping that would help Jeremy relax quicker. "So... Michael and I usually do this and I don't really have anything else interesting to do, so wanna maybe play video games? Of course, y-you don't have to if you d-don't want to, just tell me and I can find something else for us to do, and now I'm rambling-" 

Rich smiled softly.

"Jere, it's okay. Video games sound fun," he moved a little closer to Jeremy, crossing his feet at the base of his bed. 

"Okay," Jeremy glanced at Rich for a second, immediately looking away after. "Ever played Apocalypse Of The Damned? It's the only game I have that we haven't gotten bored of yet."

"I'm up for it," Rich laughed softly, landing his hands in his lap and let himself relax. It was just video games, not something he'd end up immediately failing at and making a fool of himself. "I've never played though, so I have no clue what I'm doing..."

"It's fine, I'll teach you," Jeremy smiled, turning on his TV and grabbing two gaming consoles, taking the blue one and handing Rich the red one. It was covered in a bunch of stickers, mostly related to vintage video games or anything that fit that aesthetic. Cute.

Rich smiled and crossed his legs under him, laying his hands in his lap as they hung loosely around the controller. He silently hoped that nothing would happen to make him mess this up and ruin his image. Honestly, this was something he'd fantasied about for a long while; after all, who couldn't help but daydream about dating their crush when they got lost in their thoughts in the middle of a boring class? This was the dream. At this point, he'd happily sell a kidney on the if it meant getting a second date (the $262, 000 from the black market would also come as a nice bonus).

The two boys waited impatiently for the game to load, occasionally sneaking glances at each other before quickly turning away the second the other noticed, their cheeks covered by a faint, rose-pink blush.

"Okay, I'll start a new game so you learn playing at Level One, instead of jumping straight to Nine, okay?" Jeremy smiled softly, moving a little closer to Rich as he selected the 'New Game' option.

"Alright, so what do I do?" Rich bit his lip slightly, almost letting the controller slip out of his hands. He noticed Jeremy select the 'One Player' option, assuming he was gonna get walked through Level One first before getting to do the real thing. 

"Just watch," Jeremy grinned, starting the game and putting his own controller down as he moved behind the short boy. A 10 second countdown until the start of the game appeared on the screen, in neatly hand-written numbers, in a really cool font.

Then Rich felt it. 

Jeremy was putting his arms around him, placing his fingers over Rich's, helping him get a better grip on his controller. The shorter boy felt himself blush furiously as he felt Jeremy adjust his fingers over the device, moving across the buttons and onto the joysticks, so he could control the character's movements. He was so close, Rich could pretty much explode right now. Whenever the tall, skinny boy leaned in slightly, Rich couldn't help but freak out a little on the inside at the tingly feeling of his warm breath on the back of his neck, the simple touch of Jeremy's torso against his arched back. He wanted to lean back so badly, itching to be closer to his friend. Could he even call him his friend now? They were a date, after all.

"You okay?" Jeremy asked him, moving his hand over the joystick so the game character could dodge the movements of various zombies trying to surround him. 

"Y-yeah. Just caught up in the game, that's all," Rich replied, resisting the urge to lean into the taller boy and close his eyes. Jeremy probably had no idea what was really going on in his mind, and he wanted to keep it that way, for various reasons.

"Alright. Do you have the hang of the controls?" the teenage boy smiled, loosening his grip on Rich's hands, giving him a little more room to make choices. He'd never admit it, but the shorter wished Jeremy had just kept his hands as they were. They were so warm, so soft, so gentle...

"Got it," Rich bit his lip anxiously, trying his best to dodge every zombie that came his way, remembering to hit any ones that crawled too close to the side, out of range. He watched as a fair-haired zombie stumbled back into a table, stifling a laugh as her head glitched into a table. It probably wasn't even that funny, but Rich was kind of on a high right now, so any kind of emotion he might feel was amplified due to the rush.

Before he could even process what he was doing, he finished the task assigned for Level One, feeling every single muscle in his body relax as he saw his score come up on the screen. He hadn't even realised how tense he was while playing the game.

"24, 601 points? Hey, you did pretty good for a first try," Jeremy remarked, resting his head on his date's shoulder. Rich found himself leaning into the other boy, still feeling pretty relaxed, now that he knew Jeremy was completely comfortable with being close to him. This was giving him a huge rush of adrenaline, and the funny thing was that it actually felt amazing. For the first time in what felt like forever, he didn't feel awkward, or anxious, or stressed out due to the thought of messing up.

The shorter boy felt his lips twitch into a subtle smile as he felt Jeremy let out a quiet sigh, evidently calm, despite how close they were. Slowly, he shifted himself around so that he was facing the other boy, gently pressing his head into Jeremy's chest, feeling his date's breath hitch at the contact and grinning at his reaction. Rich let himself melt into the taller boy's arms, closing his eyes as he took in the calming vanilla scent of his navy-blue cardigan. 

"I like this," he murmured, burying his nose into the soft fabric of Jeremy's clothes.

"Me too," came a response from the other boy as he gently pulled Rich closer, carefully starting to play with the red streak in his hair. As indicated by the soft, relaxed sound Rich let out, Jeremy grinned, thrilled to see that the smaller boy was equally enjoying it. The taller boy noticed a small, royal blue ribbon next to them, on his desk, so he reached for it and gently started weaving it into his date's soft, silky hair, smiling at the contrast inbetween the two colours.

Rich looked up innocently, giving Jeremy a small smile, pretty much making his heart melt.

"Can I...can I kiss you?" he murmured quietly, lifting his head up so it was at the same level with Jeremy's, dying to lean in. This was it. It was finally happening. He was so close to doing the one thing he had dreamed of doing for the past...well, who knows how long? He'd always thought Jeremy was cute, even before he got his SQUIP.

The taller nodded shyly, feeling his lips twitch in anticipation of what was just about to happen. 

And there it was. Slowly, Rich leaned in and pressed his lips against his, tracing an arm down his back, making Jeremy shiver under his touch. 

The kiss didn't last long, but it didn't even matter, to either of them. All that mattered was that they were here, next to each other, finally brought together as one.

"I guess Michael knew what he was doing," Rich laughed lightly, leaning into the other boy.

"Yeah..." Jeremy chuckled, leaving a soft kiss onto his freckled forehead.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *casually looks up how much a kidney is worth on the black market*
> 
> Also like,, damn, two updates in a day because I forgot to transfer those oneshots here from Wattpad? More likely than you think :") 
> 
> ~ Jensen


	6. ~°•* BMC As Stuff My Friends Say *•°~

Christine: Fish fish!!

Jeremy: wha-?

Christine: Fishy fish!!

Michael, low-key amused that this has been going on for 5 minutes: I'll blow up that fish if you don't stop talking about it-

Christine: Ooooh... dynamite fishing! How cool would that be?!?

Michael, smirking: We should try it. Maybe the fish would enjoy that.

Jeremy, rolling his eyes: Yes, obviously, don't you just LOVE it when you're deep-diving in the sea, only to swim headfirst into a sTiCK oF DyNaMiTe-

Rich: What's the sarcasm for? That's a normal occurrence.

• ° • ° • ° •

-for context, everyone is waiting for Brooke at Jeremy's birthday party-

Christine: Hey, what's taking her so long? 

Jeremy: She's usually pretty late to stuff like this. Once, she was so slow getting ready for something, by the time she got there the event already ended.

Michael: Huh. How punctual of her.

Rich: Yeah, she's like that...anyway, what are we eating? I'm hungry.

Jeremy: You'll see when Brooke gets here.

Michael: Are we...Are we eating B r o o k e-

Jeremy: nO-

• ° • ° • ° •

Chloe, holding a piece of chalk: Okay, lemme just. Draw this circle.

Brooke: That's an oval-

Chloe: YoU'Re an oval-

Michael, to Jake: I love how Chloe's used so many insults that she's run out of original ones and going back to 3rd grade ones.

Jake, chuckling to himself: Don't let her hear you say that, or she won't invite you to her birthday party anymore-

• ° • ° • ° •

\- context: in art class. Everyone is painting a watercolour portrait of a celebrity-

Rich, looking satisfied after pelting Jeremy's arm in dark brown watercolor: Haha! Now you look like Beyoncé's eyebrow!

• ° • ° • ° •

Christine, aggressively swinging her head side to side, clearly excited: My hair's like a windscreen wiper!

• ° • ° • ° •

-context: art class, again-

Jeremy, looking at Michael's sketch: Dude, give her some eyelashes-

Michael: No. She doesn't deserve the privilege to have eyelashes.

Jake: She's too special-

• ° • ° • ° • 

\- context: school musical-

Jeremy, clearly done with life: I swear, if anyone puts stage make-up on me, I'll bite them.

• ° • ° • ° •

Rich: Honestly, the first time I properly talked to Christine I was high-key intimidated.

Brooke: What, how? She's like, the softest person you'll ever meet-

Rich: I know, but it was scary-

• ° • ° • ° • 

Michael: Hey...if you're gay...and you hate yourself...does that make you homophobic?

Jeremy, staring down at the table: Well, guess I've become the one thing I swore to destroy.

• ° • ° • ° •

Jenna: Wait, what was that thing you guys were doing last year?

Christine: Literature club?

Jeremy: Yeah, that was cool.

Rich: At one point we had to design a children's book about an Anxious Avocado called Annie and Christine and Jeremy got too attached to her. They were crying over her sad backstory in the back of the class-

Christine: Well she deserved better :(

• ° • ° • ° •

\- context: at a science club after-school. They're building towers out of raw spaghetti sticks and marshmallows-

Christine, one of the only people taking it seriously: Rich, stop eating all the marshmallows, we need those-

Christine, like 5 minutes later: Who keeps snapping our spaghetti sticks in small pieces and swallowing them? 

Christine, visibly concerned: Michael, why are you flirting with a spaghetti stick?

**(fun fact: the person flirting with a spaghetti stick was, in fact, called Michael)**

• ° • ° • ° •

\- context: after art class because the people in that class are pure chaos-

SQUIPPED!Rich, probably trying to mock the teacher: Bye! Love you, miss-

Art teacher, mildly confused: Um...love you too?

• ° • ° • ° •

Mr Reyes, deciding to play some Christmas music while everyone does their work: :D

Jenna: When was this made? It sounds like they produced it 70 years ago-

Brooke: Yeah, it's awful.

Chloe: This music suddenly gave me the urge to burn down my Christmas tree.

• ° • ° • ° •

Christine: Just remember, nobody's ever gonna hate you more than you already hate yourself!

Jeremy: That doesn't help. I hate myself a lot.

• ° • ° • ° •

Christine, sitting on one of the bike support thingies you find in bike sheds: Guys, look! I'm a bike!

• ° • ° • ° •

Christine: Gah, I love Broadway.

Jenna: Broadway? Who's that?

Jeremy, face-palming: It's a p l a c e-

• ° • ° • ° •

Jenna: The stuff Chloe writes in birthday cards is superior to everyone else's and you can't tell me otherwise.

Rich: It's only funny because she'll tease you about how you're finally her age or just straight up call you old, even though she's the oldest one in the group-

Jake: It's her way of subtly admitting that she's a fossil-

Brooke: On my 14th birthday, she told me I'm so old that I baby-sat the dinosaurs...

Jeremy: She called me a boomer in my birthday card last month.

Christine: Well, she just calls me a child-

• ° • ° • ° •

Jeremy, introducing the New Student™ to his friends: So this is Rich. He's kinda feral and we don't really understand his ways, but we all love him so we let him hang around.

• ° • ° • ° •

Michael: You either have a gay cousin, or you are they gay cousin.

Rich: I've never met any of my cousins, but they're probably straight.

Jeremy: 

Michael:

Jake:

Christine:

Brooke:

Jenna:

Chloe:

The SQUIPs:

Rich: Oh wait-

• ° • ° • ° •

Jeremy, showing the smallest bit of self-doubt: :(

Rich: I will punch you with all my love!

Jeremy: How dare you give me appreciation.

• ° • ° • ° •

Jeremy and Christine, shouting Sincerely, Me on their way to class: if i sTOP SMOKING CRACK-

Mr Reyes walking in front of them, turning to see if they're okay: Ó╭╮Ò

Jeremy and Christine, realising and breaking into laughter: :,)

• ° • ° • ° •

Michael and Rich, locking arms and dramatically walking away from their friend group because everyone is being romantic and they're just third-wheeling: Let's go be gay alone together!

Mr Reyes, walking past them and overhearing: *amused chuckle*

• ° • ° • ° •

The "SQUIP Squad" and a bunch of other people that got invited: *T-posing around a tree in their hangout place at school for the whole of lunch to confuse the teachers on the last day*

Mr Reyes and another teacher: *join in*

**( I have pictures of when we did this too lmao. I'd put them in the chapter but my phone's still broken and the photo's on there so ;-;')**

• ° • ° • ° •

Jake: Hey, you're short.

Rich: No, I'm not. You're just a skyscraper.

• ° • ° • ° •

Brooke: AHHHHHHHHH

Jenna: Same-

• ° • ° • ° •

-in maths class. There's a substitute teacher so nobody's actually taking the lesson seriously-

Jeremy, drawing over a piece of paper that he ripped out of his maths book: Okay, here. *shows Michael a drawing of a head with legs and arms, but no hips and torso*

Michael, stifling a laugh: Can I try?

Jeremy: Sure

Michael: *draws the same thing, but with legs that are A LOT bigger* *adds a few planets orbiting strange head arm leg man's legs*

Jeremy: Oh my god, that's beautiful. Picasso is quaking-

Michael: Wait lemme draw Earth next to him as size comparison-

Jeremy, chuckling behind his hand: He thicc-

**(I can't remember where I put the Michael one but here's the OG, drawn by yours truly. Clearly one of my proudest art moments)**

**(also, yes, that i s Rich Goranski)**

• ° • ° • ° •

-in the school library-

Jeremy: Rich looks so cute right now. Look at him, he's barely taller than the bookshelfs-

Jake: Oh my god. He's so small.

Michael: It's cause he has no legs. It's just his waist, and the rest of his body. He just floats.

Jeremy: B-but you can see his legs-

Jake, rolling his eyes: Dude. They're h o l o g r a m s. They're not real.

• ° • ° • ° •

Rich: Technically, isn't Philadelphia cheese more liquid than solid?

Jake: Wh- what does that me a n-

Rich: No like,, you can spread it.

Jake: You can also spread butter?

Rich: Yeah, but butter's more solid-

Jake: How??

Rich: Well for butter, the wrapper goes around it cause it's a block. But for Philadelphia cheese, it goes in a little container-

Jake: Yeah but the spready cheese triangle things? The wrapper goes around them too, but they're more like Philadelphia cheese than butter.

Rich: But it's still different! You cut butter with a knife, but you can just scoop the cheese y'know.

Jake: But- that doesn't make spready cheese more liquid. That's not possible-

Rich: But a solid is basically just a really thick liquid!

Jake: Rich,,,,,no. That's not how it works.


	7. ~°•*You Take My Breath Away (Puppy Love)*•°~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by @waddle_gets_squipped on Wattpad (go follow them, they're really cool) 
> 
> Enjoy! <3

Brooke sighed as she shifted in the uncomfortable sheets of her hospital bed, biting her lip as she reached for her phone, smiling softly at the familiar texture of her furry phone case. The girl quickly swiped in her password and opened her text messages, deciding to catch up with how her friends were doing now that she couldn't see them in person. Grinning to herself, she quickly typed in a short text and clicked send, in a matter of seconds.

_» Brooke: hey guys :)_

Knowing that her friends would take a while to respond, Brooke closed the messaging app and opened Instagram instead, soon getting a little too caught up in browsing her "For You" page and looking at aesthetically pleasing photographs and random moodboards based around certain themes that she liked. Being the kind, very appreciate person that she was, the girl made sure to leave a like for almost every post that she came across, sometimes even going as far as leaving a sweet comment complimenting that person's photography skills, or just expressing her awe at their wonderful edits. 

The sound of a notification made her stop scrolling for a second, bringing a smile to her face as it finally popped up on the screen, a few seconds late, as always. 

_{ You have 1 new message from chat "i'm in me mum's car (vroom vroom)" }_

_» Jenna: Hi, Brooke!_

Grinning, Brooke quickly typed back a reply.

_» Brooke: jenna, hi! how are you?_

_» Jenna: I'm okay! I'm trying to update my Twitter account with the latest news. Apparently that kid that went viral a couple of years ago moved here-_

The girl laughed softly, readjusting her hospital pillow as she shifted a little in her spot, trying to find a more comfortable position. She found it amusing that gossip was that one phase Jenna hadn't grown out of yet, instead of something more...hobby-like? It wasn't like she minded it though; it was nice to get that interesting information, even if it wasn't all that relevant to her.

_» Jake: H_ _ey kids_

_» Jenna: Woah, Jake's alive :0_

_» Jake: Why are ypu so surpr_ _ised??_

Brooke stifled a laugh and leaned against her bedframe, typing back a reply.

_» Brooke: well usually when you go skateboarding with rich you end up breaking something_

_» Jake: That's npt fair, that wad a_ _one-time thinf_

_» Jenna: **not , **was, **thing_

_» Jake: Shut up >:(((_

_» Brooke: who knows, maybe he broke his finger and that's why he can't type_

_» Jake: I didn't! Shut it or I'll cut off your life support smh_

_» Brooke: i'm not /on/ life support??_

_» Jenna: You might be soon_

_» Brooke: i-_

She sighed softly when she noticed a male nurse make his way towards her hospital room, carrying a board in his right hand and a pen in his left. 

_» Brooke: hang on there's a nurse coming brb_

Brooke had to admit that he looked insanely familiar. Okay, okay, so maybe chestnut brown hair that fell in curls over a pair of clear, sky-blue eyes was a pretty common look for guys around his age (and hers? They both seemed to be in their 20s), but she could swear he was somebody that she used to know. She scanned his name tag for any clues.

 _J. Heere_

The name sounded familiar too...

The girl searched her mind for any trance of someone with that last name, but nothing came up. Shame. She probably knew too many people and "Heere" must have gotten lost in the blur of random names and faces lost in her memories. Hopefully, she'd remember who he was soon, just in case he realised she was but expected her to make the first move. What if he already realised that they used to know eachother and didn't want to point it out himself because he didn't think he was memorable enough? Or worse, what if he _would_ point it out and Brooke wouldn't remember, meaning he got offended or had a decrease in self-esteem? She would hate to make someone feel like they weren't interesting or relevant enough to be remembered by her. For as long as she remembered, Brooke had cared about other people's feelings more than her own. Maybe that's why she was such a Mom Friend ™.

"So..." the nurse cleared his throat awkwardly as he tapped his pen against the blackboard. "Brooke Lohst?"

"That's me," she smiled awkwardly, turning off her phone and letting it fall into her lap.

"Well," the nurse began, giving her an equally awkward smile, "Dr Yang was able to diagnose you. Luckily, it's only a minor pulmonary contusion and we found no fluid in your lungs, so you won't need surgery. You should be released in about four days, six at the most."

"Okay, that's great," Brooke stated, a little less enthusiastically than intended. "Except...what does that mean?"

"You have a bruised lung," the nurse explained, briefly putting his clipboard down so he could check her vitals. 

"Ah. That sucks," Brooke sighed softly, briefly looking back at her phone before glancing back up at her nurse, who was currently writing something down on the clipboard, probably related to her lungs. 

She had to admit that he looked pretty cute, just standing there by the window, carefully writing down every single detail. A small strand of vibrant brown hair fell over his face as he did so, brushing against the bridge of his nose slightly whenever his head moved slightly. Brooke focused in on his icy blue eyes, which were narrowed at the piece of paper in front of him, while he pursed his bottom lip and scrunched up his nose, probably trying to read the small font from a not-so-small distance. The girl wondered what happened to his nerdy glasses.

When he finished, the nurse looked back up at his patient, giving her another small smile, which she soon reciprocated.

"Hey...have we...met before?" Brooke asked quietly, fiddling with her phone, deciding not to chuck it into her fortress of pillows she was leaning back into just yet. 

"I think so," he smiled softly, tucking the clipboard under one arm. "Highschool, right? Y'know, the..."

"Oh, you're-" Brooke gasped silently, finally piecing her memories together and remembering the name. "Jeremy-"

The nurse nodded awkwardly, gripping onto the edge of his clipboard.

Brooke ran through her memories with this boy, feeling her heart ache a little. A small encounter in a clothes shop, a brief conversation about something that passed. A love confession behind the bleachers at school, two hands brushing against each other as one led her companion to "her favourite place behind the school". A warm kiss on the benches behind the school building, where they'd be shielded from the burning sun. A couple of minutes in which they gradually brought each other closer. A moment where one of them hesitantly pulled himself away. A brief second where she could see a completely different emotion flash behind his eyes. Was it regret? Sorrow? Loneliness? Melancholy? Guilt? 

She didn't know. 

The look behind Jeremy's eyes vanished in a matter of milliseconds. It was like it was never even there and maybe, just maybe, Brooke had imagined it.

As easily as he pulled away, the boy went straight back to what he was doing before. Brooke didn't think about it. She wished she had. Maybe if she thought about what she saw, she could have caught on to the SQUIP and saved herself (and so many people close to her) from so much pain.

The girl shook her head, snapping herself out of her train of thought. There was no point feeling guilty for not figuring it out. There wasn't anything she could do, and anyway, the whole SQUIP thing was almost a decade in the past. If even Rich and Jake had gotten past it, she couldn't complain: after all, she only had her SQUIP for a few minutes. It hadn't even begun to cause any damage.

"Well," she cleared her throat awkwardly, "how are you? Long time, no see."

"I'm okay," Jeremy smiled softly. "What about you? How are you?"

Brooke snorted quietly.

"I have a bruised lung, how do you think?" she giggled softly, earning a quiet laugh from the guy in front of him. 

_Oh my god, I forgot how cute his laugh was-_

"So...a nurse, huh? That's really cool. I'm happy for you," Brooke looked up at him, straight into those milky blue eyes. She immediately shoved her junior year memories of him away. Now was not the time.

"Thanks," Jeremy smiled happily as he double-checked Brooke's heart rate, before noting it on down the file again, changing one number. "Uh- what do you do?"

"Dog rescue," She replied, grinning. "I help people give stray dogs a home."

"Oh, wow," Jeremy scanned her face with a pair of wide eyes, clearly intrigued. "What's that like?"

Brooke smiled shyly, feeling a little flustered at his peak in interest. Even though she had distanced herself from Chloe ever since the whole series of events at Jake's Halloween party (they were still friends, of course, but not as close as before), she still wasn't used to getting attention from anyone (after all, who'd go after the second hottest girl at Middleborough? Everyone wanted to be with the first, second best wouldn't ever be good enough for anyone.)

"It's amazing. Really rewarding, actually. I get to watch dogs go from lonely and anxious to playful and friendly as they learn to gain trust in humans again. After that, I see them all go to happy homes. It's heartwarming."

"Sounds like it, actually," Jeremy smiled politely, fiddling with his clipboard. "Does that by any chance relate to how you got injured?"

"Nope. Martial Arts lesson. The person I was sparring with gave me a pretty sharp blow to the chest so my lung decided to...y'know," Brooke gestured around with her hands a little, "collapse on itself because of that."

Jeremy perked up slightly, straightening his back as he raised an index finger nervously.

"Actually, it didn't collapse on itself," he corrected her, "it's just a little bruised."

"Same difference."

"Pfft, not really."

The two sat in comfortable silence for a few moments, occasionally making eye contact for a brief second, only to nervously look away after, before Jeremy stifled a laugh. Brooke narrowed her eyes at him playfully.

"What?"

Jeremy smiled cheekily.

"Nothing. You just don't strike me as the kind of girl that would take up Martial Arts," he chuckled lightly, "I can't imagine you aggressively karate chopping somebody's arm off."

"That's not what you do in martial arts!" the girl laughed at his statement from behind her hand. "But I could probably take you in a fight," she admitted.

"Oh yeah?" Jeremy smirked, raising an eyebrow while pretending to scribble something down on his clipboard for "dramatic effect". 

"Wanna find out? I dare you to fight me under this pillow fort. Winner keeps all the pillows."

The boy smiled softly, a quiet chuckle left his half-parted lips as he leaned in towards Brooke slightly to move her pillows around a little. The girl smiled when she caught the whiff of a soft, sweet vanilla scent, barely acknowledgeable thanks to the nose-stinging smell of hospital disinfectant, yet still there. She almost didn't notice her cheeks flushing a pale red because _he was so close_. Soon enough, to her relief, Jeremy finished with her pillows and moved away, smiling softly.

"Maybe later," he winked. "I have other patients to check on."

Brooke blinked slowly and watched as the nurse gave her an awkward head nod before heading out of her room, clipboard in hand. Huh. 

She never thought Jeremy Heere out of all people would end up as someone who saved lives for a living. Sure, he may have come off as extremely nerdy (or was it more like geeky?) in highschool, but the girl never thought he'd make it this far, at least not like this. It was a nice surprise, anyway.

Grinning, the girl picked up her phone again and swiped it open, quickly typing in a new message.

_» Brooke: guys,, you'll never guess who my nurse is-_

~~~

The girl sighed softly as she looked at her screen with narrowed eyes, yawning a little. Obviously, it was pretty late already, but she didn't want to sleep just yet, even though she was way more tired than usual. She wanted to talk to her friends too: couldn't do that if she was sleeping, obviously. It wasn't like it mattered at what time she woke up the next day anyway, since she didn't have to go to work in the morning, as much as she wanted to see the litter of puppies she had rescued a couple of weeks prior to her martial arts accident.

Brooke tiredly clicked send after slowly typing a message to the group chat, stifling a yawn. 

» _Brooke: hnghhhh i wanna be out of here already. i miss breathing fresh air_

As she closed her eyes, the girl loosened her grip around her device, deciding to rest her eyes for a while, until the muffled sound of a new notification came through. Yawning a little, Brooke shifted in her bed, leaning her head back into one of her pillows as she felt her phone slide into her lap. 

The sound of a new message coming through made the girl groan quietly as she yet again held the screen in front of her eyes, blinking slowly.

 _{_ _You have 1 new message from group chat "ALL HAIL OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR BIG CHUNGUS" }_

Brooke chuckled softly. Of course, at least one of her friends would always be awake this late. Smiling happily, she read the text and immediately wrote something back.

_» Jake: Open a window??_

_» Brooke: it took me agessss to get this comfortable there's no way i'm moving for the next 20 years_

Another notification. Brooke squinted at the contact name, barely making out her friend's name.

_» Chloe: You sound like my grandma._

_» Brooke: rad_

_» Rich: Ew that's my thing, stop stealing my branding-_

_» Brooke: make me :)_

_» Jake: KiNkY_

The girl yawned quietly and looked up from her phone, only to notice the familiar silhouette of a nurse in the hallway, near the nurses' desk, which brought a small smile to her face. He was here. 

Brooke slowly focused the camera on her phone on the boy's figure. Thankfully, he was mostly turned with his back on her, so only a small part of his face would be that visible in the photo, although the messy chestnut hair was a distinguishing feature by itself. Smiling, she snapped a photo.

_» Brooke: [ photo]_

_» Brooke: he's ba c k-_

_» Chloe: Wow he's had a glowup wtf_

Brooke snorted at Chloe's reaction. It wasn't really something she'd expect Chloe to say, especially about Jeremy Heere out of all people, but hey, she'd never actually correctly predicted somebody's reaction, no matter how long she'd known them for. It didn't really bother her.

Another notification.

_» Jake: You're sure that's him?_

_» Brooke: yeah,, he recognised me the first time we talked-_

_» Rich: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_

_» Brooke: rich i stg- he was just checking my vitals, you creep_

_» Rich: suuuuuuure_

Rolling her eyes, Brooke glanced up again, only to notice Jeremy making his way towards her, clipboard in hand. His feet were dragging a little behind him, while he blinked tiredly, eyes barely keeping up with his body's movements. The girl felt a little bad for him; he was probably working a really long shift today, or maybe he hadn't slept well before coming to the hospital.

_» Brooke: wait he's coming back to my room_

_» Jake: lmao get some!!_

_» Rich: bWAHAHAHAHAH_

The girl quickly shoved her phone under her blanket, greeting her nurse with a shy head nod. She smiled softly when he greeted her in the same manner, a few seconds late.

"You look tired. Have you slept, like, at all?" Brooke tilted her head to the side slightly, looking at him in concern.

"Nah. The second I got to the on-call room, Dr Melendez paged me so I could help his intern prep a surgery for their patient," Jeremy sighed, giving her an awkward smile. "It's fine, though. I'll sleep when my shift ends."

"Right. Well, don't overwork yourself."

The nurse snickered softly, running a hand through his hair.

"Aw, you care about me. How sweet."

"Maybe. Also because, well, my life is kind of in your hands right now?" Brooks raised an eyebrow at him, holding back a childish giggle.

"Brooke, you're not dying-"

"I could be."

"You're not."

"Pfft, you don't know that," she scoffed, giving him a teasing smirk afterwards. 

"Yes, I do." Jeremy shook his head, noting down Brooke's BPM before checking for regular blood flow. It seemed alright for now. With a sigh, he reached down to check her temperature, before turning around to scribble some more on his clipboard.

"Prove it," Brooke stuck her tongue at him playfully, fiddling with the edge of her blanket. Slowly, she leaned her head back into one of her pillows, closing one eye, but still keeping one open so she could observe his reaction. The pillow felt a little cold, with a pretty rough texture for a pillow, but she didn't mind, instead just leaning further back into it

"I have your test results for everything. It's just a midly bruised lung, you're not gonna die anytime soon," Jeremy rolled his eyes.

"Right."

The girl moved a little under the covers, biting her lip as her nurse carried on checking everything he needed to, usually looking at it twice (or three times) to make sure he copied it down correctly. Brooke wondered if Jeremy did that because of protocol, or because he was terrified of making a mistake. Maybe it was both? She couldn't tell.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, the girl cleared her throat, grinning cheekily.

"Was that annoying?"

"A little," her nurse admitted, giving an anxious chuckle before quickly perking up and shaking his hands around like a maniac, "but I don't mean that in a rude way, it's also kinda funny, I swear! Sorry if it came off as that-"

Brooke laughed softly.

"So you won't fight me?

Jeremy opened his mouth to answer, but before he could say anything, Brooke quickly leaned forwards, as a wave of hectic, hoarse coughs hit her, making the whole of her body shake mildly whenever she tried to hold it back. The girl wheezed weakly, placing a pale, shaky hand in front of quivering lips, only to give Jeremy a panicked look when she noticed a bit of blood staining her fingertips, slowly starting to drip down onto the bed covers.

"Hang on, you're gonna be okay" Jeremy gave her a reassuring smile, grabbing a pager and calling for some more experienced doctors over to her room, so they could help her out.

The next few minutes went by in a blurry flash. Brooke couldn't recall much, apart from a couple of nurses and doctors leaning over her in an attempt to help her stop coughing. Luckily, she hadn't coughed up too much blood, so she wasn't in any danger, as far as the doctors knew, but they still had to take a few tests.

While the doctors were outside discussing how to approach her situation and what they had to do first, Jeremy had moved Brooke to the armchair next to her bed while he changed the sheets for some new, clean ones.

"I won't fight you," he stated calmly as he looked at Brooke over his shoulder, giving a little smirk. "You'll obviously win."

Brooke sighed and rolled her eyes, crossing her legs in the armchair. She watched intently as Jeremy smoothed any creases on the sheets before putting the pillows back. After a few moments, the girl lazily moved towards the bed to crawls under the covers.

"So.... do you still think I'm not dying?"

"Oh my god..." Jeremy shook his head, smiling as he left her hospital room.

~~~

Brooke yawned quietly behind her hand, blinking slowly to adjust to the light in her room. After a quick check-up on her vitals, the doctor leading her case offered to pull up her blinds, now that it was bright outside, so her room wouldn't look so dark and gloomy. She was glad that they did; usually when the blinds were down her room looked grey and depressing, therefore killing whatever good vibes she had. 

The sound of a notification made her snap out of whatever her eyes seemed to be doing in order to adjust to the light, so she reached over for her phone. Now that she thought about it, her screentime was huge. Maybe she'd work on that after she got out of the hospital.

_{ You have 4 new messages from Jenna }_

The girl ran her fingers through the furry back of her phonecase as she tapped on the message with her index finger, scrunching her nose up when she noticed her broken nail, something she really hated to happen.

_» Jenna: Hey, Brookeeeee, you awake?_

_» Jenna: Ples call me_

_» Jenna: **Please_

_» Jenna: I wanna go visit you but I have too much workkk_

Brooke smiled softly, quickly replying before clicking on the video call button, waiting for her friend to pick up.

_» Brooke: sure i gotchu_

_{ Calling Jenna . . . }_

The girl waited impatiently for her friend to pick up, staring at the ceiling as she did so. Video calls didn't make her uncomfortable or anything, but the wait for her friends to pick up often made her a little antsy. She couldn't help it; after the dozen of fake friends she had gone through in her lifetime, worrying about the person that would soon be on the other side of the call laughing at her before picking up had become second nature. 

After a few seconds, Brooke sighed in relief at the sound of Jenna on the other side of the call. Soon enough, her friend's face appeared on her screen, barely visible behind a neat stack of papers. Jenna gave Brooke an awkward, tight-lipped smile as she motioned her papers out of the range of her phone camera, shrugging.

"I'm buried in work," Jenna rolled her eyes at the camera, crossing her legs in her office chair. "My boss really doesn't want to give me a break."

Brooke smiled softly as she noticed the familiar wall from Jenna's room in the background of the video call, covered in warm yellow fairy lights and polaroid photos of everyone in their friend group, mostly of Brooke and Jake. In-between photographs of their random memories together, Brooke could spot little paper cut-outs of the ace and lesbian pride flags, since Jenna was still saving money to buy some real ones. She could still remember the day that they worked on her wall, right after she moved in. It was fun, to say the least.

"You were on vacation two months ago. I think you've had your break," Brooke laughed behind her hand, moving a little under the bed covers to be more comfortable. A quiet scoff was heard from the other side of the call.

"God, Brooke, whose side are you on?" Jenna dramatically clutched a hand to her chest in mock hurt. "To even think that I considered you a friend."

The girl giggled quietly, leaning back into her pillow.

"Okay, okay, I take it back," Brooke stuck her tongue out at her camera, rolling her eyes. "But seriously. Is it even that much work? That stack of stuff looked unreal."

Jenna laughed dryly.

"Oh, only like, half of that is actual work," she looked at the stack of paper sheepishly, trying her best not to laugh before bringing her phone closer, so she could whisper something. "My roommate likes to play music a lot and their preferred genre isn't exactly...easy to focus to. I had to convince them I have a lot of work, so they could use their headphones instead of the speakers downstairs."

"Oh, okay," Brooke shifted a little in her hospital bed, cringing when she felt the bedsheets move a little along with her. "Urgh, I'd gladly swap places with you right now. I'd give anything to be able to walk outside right now."

Jenna looked up from her work to stare right into the camera, just to raise an eyebrow dramatically. Brooke stifled a laugh.

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's so boring in here."

"Oh yeah? What about Jeremy?" Jenna gave her a little smirk.

"What about him? He's my nurse. He comes in every two hours to check out my vitals and make sure I'm not dying," Brooke did an awkward motion with her hands, biting her lip. 

On the other side of the call, Jenna could be heard snorting behind her hand, clearly amused by her friend's response. Brooke narrowed her eyes at the screen, letting a couple of honey blonde hair strands fall in front of her face as a way to hide her faint, rising blush. Why was she even blushing? It wasn't like she liked him. At least, not like _that_. He was just an old friend. Acquaintance. Old acquaintance? Yeah. Just somebody that she used to know, that wasn't that close to her anymore. Nothing romantic there. Just a couple of friendly encounters. 

"Brooke, honey," Jenna laughed, flipping over one of the pieces of paper on her desk to peer at the small font writing. "You clearly are unaware of your reputation with boys. Your vitals were not the only thing he was checking out."

The blonde gave her friend a helpless, flustered look.

"What? He's just doing his job!"

"Pffft," Jenna scoffed, flipping a bit of her hair over her slightly raised shoulder. "Brooke, stop being so oblivious to being attractive," she looked into the camera seriously. "Y'know, second hottest girl in Middleborough?" she did a speech marks motion with her fingers. "That was a load of bull. There's no way people actually thought Chloe was better than you."

"I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that," Brooke looked down at her nails idly, avoiding having to look back up at the screen to see Jenna's disapproval. "Chloe's taller, skinnier, more confident-"

"That doesn't make her more attractive than you, Brooke," Jenna facepalmed. "You're kind. You're like, ten times prettier. You're loyal, with an amazing personality to go with it. Nobody can compete with that, not even Chloe Valentine."

Brooke huffed quietly, the exhale making one thin strand of golden hair bounce up from the side of her face in a quick, blink-and-you'll-miss-it motion. The girl focused her gaze on her phone screen, yawning softly. 

"Whatever," she shook her head indifferently. _Don't give me hope._

The girls sat in silence for a few minutes. The only sounds that could be heard were the occasionally beeps from Brooke's heart rate monitor and the scratchy noise of Jenna scribbling something down in her notebook, a little muffled due to the bad quality of Brooke's phone speakers. 

"So," Jenna cleared her throat, not looking up from her work. "When do you get out of that dump?"

"My doctor said I'll be discharged tomorrow," Brooke sighed softly, closing one eye. "It sucks that they had to keep me here for extra time. I can't wait to leave."

"Really? Even when there's some cute nurse falling head over heels for you?"

Brooke glared at Jenna through the screen, resisting the urge to flip her off. Ever since she had told her friends about Jeremy being her nurse, they hadn't taken a break from permanently harassing her with questions and jokes, as if they were back in highschool again. On any other occasion, she probably would have laughed along, but this time was different, somehow.

"He's not falling head over heels for me, Jenna. I'm just some girl he went to highschool with," Brooke sighed, letting herself sink into the depths of her hospital pillow, not caring how weird she must have looked on the other side of the call. 

"That's...not true."

"Yes it is!" the blonde groaned into her pillow, silently hoping it could just open up and take her away from this situation right there and then. "How would you know, anyway? You weren't even here when he came in. You haven't seen anything-"

Jenna shook her head, almost immediately waving away Brooke's argument.

"I don't need to? My gut says so," she stated matter-of-factly, trying to organise her desk a little more. "You know my gut's right like, what, 90% of the time?"

"Well, maybe this is that 10% where you're wrong?" Brooke crossed her arms, her body subconsciously moving to face the door. Oh, how she wished she could just walk out of the room right about now...

...

Okay, maybe not right now. A familiar nurse seemed to be standing in what would be her way, if she could actually get up without being held back by a bunch of random wires (or whatever they were) stuck on her.

Jeremy.

He cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Am I interrupting something?" he bit his lip nervously, his hand clutching around the cup of coffee he was holding, making his bitten fingernails even more visible. Brooke really hoped it was just a bad habit, and not something linked to something possibly problematic.

"No, it's okay," Brooke smiled sweetly, turning down the volume on her phone just in case Jenna felt like making a comment. "Your shift is over, right? Why are you still here?" she asked, only to cringe at Jeremy's reaction, immediately filled with guilt. "Shi- I'm sorry! It wasn't supposed to come out like that! I meant, like, there's probably better things to do than check up on your patient, right?"

Jeremy cracked a small smile, his shoulders clearly loosening up a little. Good, he was starting to relax. 

"I wanted to make sure you're okay before I leave," he admitted quietly, glancing down at the floor. 

"Of course I'm okay! I'm leaving tomorrow, remember? I'll get to walk again!" Brooke stated over-excitedly, smiling like a little child who had just gotten a bunch of candy.

"Right," Jeremy smiled, edging a little closer to her hospital bed. His free hand anxiously fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. "Anyway, here's some coffee. Nothing too fancy, just something from the cafeteria downstairs, but uh. I hope it's okay," the boy grinned, handing her the warm cup of coffee.

"Thanks," Brooke nodded happily.

"See you around?"

"Yeah." 

Brooke follower Jeremy with her gaze as he made his way towards the corridor, looking...relieved? Fair enough.

The girl shrugged and turned the volume to the video call back up, awkwardly taking a sip of the coffee she had been given. Okay, so it was a little bitter than what she normally had, maybe made her eye twitch a little, and maybe it was a little too watery for her liking, but it was the thought that mattered, right? 

"So...he got you coffee, huh?" Jenna smirked, wriggling her eyebrows.

"Jenna-"

"There's writing on the side of the cup, by the way-" her friend pointed out, looking back at her paperwork, her smile fading a little at the stack of stuff she still had to fill out. 

Brooke raised an eyebrow and moved her hand around the cup carefully, trying to turn it slowly, without the clumsy side of her personality deciding to kick in and spill it everywhere. Her sky blue eyes narrowed at a small, yet obvious message written on the side of the cup, in what seemed to be black permanent marker.

___________

_"fight me? :)_

_xxx-xxxx-xxxx"_

_____________

"Oh-" Brooke laughed softly, tucking a strand of honey blonde hair behind her ear.

"So...I take it my gut was right?" Jenna smiled through the screen. "It's like I told you, it's almost always right!"

"Yeah, sure," Brooke answered quietly, smiling to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that was enjoyable? I was looking up prompts to use as a plot and I came across a hospital thing and my Grey's Anatomy stan side really went "ajiqnsisd tHAT ONE" and yeah
> 
> I might make a part 2? I feel like I didn't put enough actual ship content and it's kinda low quality compared to my other stuff-
> 
> Dbkjhskjss if y'all want a part two lemme know ig :')
> 
> Have a great day, everyone! <3
> 
> ~ Jensen

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah. 
> 
> Gah, I didn't like making Christine seem like the villain in my first oneshot :') 
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Comments are appreciated


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